How San Diego Scored a $1.9B Solar, Wind Power Line

SAN DIEGO -- Last week, California regulators approved a $1.9 billion high-voltage power line, giving a major victory to the San Diego utility that says it needs the transmission route to harness solar, wind and underground heat from a distant desert.

Thursday, Dec. 18, the California Public Utilities Commission voted 4-1 for San Diego Gas & Electric Co.'s Sunrise Powerlink, which would run 123 miles from California's economically depressed Imperial Valley to the nation's eighth-largest city and carry enough power for about 750,000 homes.

Commissioners cast aside concerns that SDG&E will never deliver on promises to use the line for renewable power, that it will blight the mountain landscape with 150-foot towers, and that ratepayers will pick up the tab.

Commissioner John Bohn said the promises of renewable energy and jobs outweighed concerns about the project's cost and uncertainty about how the line would be used. ...