This went completely under the radar as of late. Federal pressure has the California State Parks and Recreation Commission re-evaluating the wilderness status give to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. To virtually quote Diana Lindsay, the President of the Anza-Borrego Foundation and Institute, this would be the first time in American history that either state or federal wilderness has been de-designated in order to allow development. As you might predict the industry pushing for this change is the energy industry specifically San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E) who wants to erect 150 miles of transmission line straight through this protected area. If the government is successful in repealing protected status of lands deisgnated as wilderness a dangerous precedent will be set putting all protected land in jeopardy.
Sadly the perception is that this may be a done deal, but with your participation it can be stopped.
The California State Parks and Recreation Commission will be holding
its ONLY southern California hearing on the proposed powerline route on 2/8/07 at 7:30 PM at the Borrego Springs Resort.
See the remainder of this blog entry for further details and follow this link to stay caught up on the “Sunrise Powerlink” project.
The few news articles that have documented the proposed changes to the public:
Santa Ysabel learns Valleyites informed SDG&E plan at PUC (a must read)
Sunrise Powerlink would be first power line approved in existing park (a must read)
Naming of national power corridor delayed
Utility Consumers’ Action Network – Sunrise Powerlink Rulings, Comments & Testimony A letter calling for action to protect Anza-Borrego Desert State Park:
“To my knowledge, never in American history has either state or federal
wilderness been de-designated in order to allow development.
Shockingly, this is precisely what is being considered for wilderness
in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park to allow the proposed Sunrise
Powerlink powerline to be built! In addition, the preferred route for
the powerline would slice through 22 miles of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park’s non-wilderness areas.
The California State Parks and Recreation Commission will be holding
its *ONLY* southern California hearing on the proposed powerline route on 2/8/07 at 7:30 PM at the Borrego Springs Resort.
Please attend this critically important hearing and let the California State Parks and Recreation Commission know that you strongly oppose
this horrific, precedent-setting rollback!
IF THERE WAS EVER A TIME TO RALLY THE TROOPS THIS IS IT! Please spread the word among all your friends and with all the organizations in
which you participate and ask them to post this date in their
newsletters, websites, and in their e-mails to their members.
Here are some key points to make at the hearing:
–You oppose any powerline route proposed through Anza-Borrego Desert > State Park.
–You strongly oppose the unprecedented de-designation of wilderness
either in the park or elsewhere.
–If a route is proposed outside the park, you oppose it being built
in any designated wilderness, proposed wilderness, Bureau of Land
Management wilderness study area, Forest Service roadless area or
other sensitive lands.
For more info, please contact:
Diana Lindsay, President,
Anza-Borrego Foundation and Institute
Having lived in the San Diego area for 10 years, I visited Anza-Borrego many times. It remains a highlight of living in Southern California. And now a major powerline to fragment this area? Certainly a different plan can be chosen to still meet the overconsumptive needs of Southern California.
Karen Wellner
Pingback: JMG-Galleries - Anza-Borrego / Sunrise Powerlink Info
More info added at the following link:
http://www.jmg-galleries.com/blog/2007/01/24/anza-borrego-sunrise-powerlink-info/
To ask whether the Sunrise Power Link should be put in San Diego County:
A. This way
B. That way
C. Some other way
is not the right question. The answer is choice “D”, “none of the above”.
In the 20th Century the Power Grid served us well.
There was no affordable practical alternative but to install “The Giant Walkers” to bring enough hydroelectric power and fossil fuel power to a growing Southern California.
Regarding the Sunrise Power Link, the SDGE web site says they need to build a “superhighway” of power lines to handle the growing demand for power and peak demand for power in a part of the country residents call blessed, and SDGE calls a cul-de-sac.
In the 1860’s what if an 8 lane dirt roadway had been built to handle the influx of pioneers who were going from Omaha to San Francisco.
Fortunately, instead, something was done that had never been done before, the knowledge and technology to do it did not exist, but it was done.
A railroad was built.
And it was started in the middle of the civil war, and built almost entirely by hand.
All but a few said it couldn’t be done.
Fortunately over 100 years ago we had people like Pres. Abraham Lincoln who was a positive thinker planning for the future in the midst of catastrophe.
A more recent comparison: In the 1960’s what if we had just added more phone lines to handle additional fax communications and voice communications instead of developing the internet. How many more phone circuits would we need today if the web of the internet did not exist?
The Power Grid system, like a cul-de-sac, is a dead end technology.
It is already obsolete and expanding it would be like building an 8 lane superhighway dirt road instead of an internet.
The towers are vulnerable to vandalism and worse.
The power plants, towers, lines, substations all require costly maintenance and repair.
Fortunately, there are alternatives.
It is past time for us, as a society, to make the change from a Power Grid system to a Power Web system.
This concept puts our existing resources to multi-tasking use.
The space above homes, businesses, government offices, parking lots, even highways, is used to host solar cells.
The power from those solar cells goes through a meter.
The property owner where the solar cells are installed, sells the electricity to the local power distribution company at wholesale rate.
The power goes into the existing local grid for distribution throughout the grid.
The cost to property owners: $0 if SDGE would use 1.3 billion dollars to pay for the equipment and installation to create such a system.
By not having to buy up land to install solar cells, but using space above existing property is a savings.
Not having to install towers and lines or maintain them is a savings.
Basically, SDGE would put the very customers they serve into the business of selling renewable electricity at wholesale rate to SDGE, thus creating a symbiotic and ecologically sound relationship.
The companies that produce electric power from oil, natural gas, and coal, should correctly think that this is a threat to them.
It would not be a threat if they would diversify and start manufacturing solar cells. There is a lot of money to be made.
We will still need a Power Grid to move hydropower and fossilpower around at night, and on cloudy days, but we can mitigate the need to continue to expand that grid and the polluting fossil fuel power plants that feed it, starting today.
Today is the day that we literally “draw a line in the sand” and just say NO to the expansion of a Power Grid system that is beyond obsolete.
Today is the day we decide that we will to create a system that provides POWER TO THE PEOPLE, FROM THE PEOPLE.
In so doing, the original objective, of protecting our environment will be achieved.
Glenn Stokes
glenn@stokesphoto.com
San Diego, CA
“To my knowledge, never in American history has either state or federal
wilderness been de-designated in order to allow development”
That is a truly frightening qoute.