October 31st turned out to be a pretty good day for opponents of SDG&E's Sunrise Powerlink case.    Two preliminary decisions were issued today.   The proposed decision written by Administrative Law Judges Steven Weissman and Jean Vieth concluded that SDG&E had not made a persuasive case for the $1.7 billion+ project.   They recommended that the Commission reject the SDG&E proposal.   They relied heavily upon the facts presented by UCAN that the line was uneconomic and was inferior to the alternatives.  

The assigned Commissioner in the case,  Dian Grueneich, offered a competing decision for consideration by the Commissioners.    She adopted most of what the judges wrote, but suggested a potential compromise.   SDG&E could potentially build a powerlink through the southern portion of San Diego  (but not through Anza Borrego Desert State Park), she pointed out.   But only upon the condition that SDG&E could prove that the line would be used primarily for renewable power.   Her detailed conditions place the onus upon SDG&E to prove that renewable power in the Imperial Valley exists, that it is cost-effective and that the line would be used to ensure that 33% of all power used by SDG&E was renewable.   This is a 60% increase over the state mandated 20% renewable requirement that comes due in 2010.

Oral argument on the case is scheduled for November 7th in San Francisco  (link to the webcast of that argument) and a final decision sometime in December.

The outstanding question at this time is whether yet another alternate decision will be proposed by another Commissioner.   It is expected that Commission president Michael Peevey will put forth another proposal that is more favorable to SDG&E but, so far, that potential alternate has not surfaced. 

The good news is that regardless of what alternate decision is finally issued by the CPUC,  UCAN plans to appeal the decision to the Court of Appeals and ultimately overturn the CPUC decision.   The evidentiary record in this case is so strongly against the construction of Sunrise that all of Sempra's political manipulations to get the Schwarzenegger CPUC to approve it will not likely survive scrutiny by the courts.   So the Sunrise saga is expected to continue for many years, hence.

For more information about the controversial Powerline project,  go to UCAN's full Sunrise web page.