Editor's Note:  This is the background on today's Union Tribune story (reproduced below).

On October 31, 2008, Dian Greuneich, a CPUC,Commissioner,  issued a preliminary ruling on SDG&E's proposed Sunrise PowerLink. The proposed decision forces SDG&E to re-route the shamefully ugly PowerLink around the Anza Borrego National Forest. SDG&E is reportedly considering an appeal of the ruling to FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Here's the threat: FERC is operated by energy industry cronies. A complete review of FERC's shameful lack of integrity is beyond the scope of this document, but in 2001, the agancy was headed by Patrick Wood (see Regulatory Report Card ). Wood resigned from the FERC in 2005, after successfully stalling meaningful investigations into energy price gouging during 2000-2001, and thwarting efforts by California's Attorney general to return money to California ratepayers.  During Wood's tenure, the FERC did absolutely nothing to protect California consumers from price manipulation by Enron and other Texas energy companies. The FERC's refusal to investigate price-gouging helped enable one of the greatest energy swindles in U.S. history. Ironically, the gaming of California energy markets by companies like Enron was exposed by an investigation conducted not by FERC - but by amateur investigators from tiny Snohomish County. What did these investigators do?  They examined the evidence that had been submitted to FERC ... and ignored. The worst of that evidence has come to be known as the so-called "Grandma Millie Tapes." 

The FERC's unwillingness to protect ordinary consumers has contributed to a new word in the American lexicon: "FERCed." And if SDG&E gets its way, we could all get FERCed again.

2005 law offers path if California regulators reject Sunrise
proposal

 If state regulators follow through with an administrative law judge's
recommendation to reject the Sunrise Powerlink, San Diego Gas & Electric Co.
still has other options to get the transmission line it seeks.

The California Public Utilities Commission decision may be appealed to the
courts, or SDG&E could ask the federal government to override state
regulators and authorize the big line.

A 2005 law allows utilities and other power-line builders to go to the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission if they want to build a line

rejected by state authorities in areas where federal officials believe there
isn't enough electric transmission.

Nobody has used it, FERC spokeswoman Barbara Connors said.

“We're new to this,” she said, pointing out that her agency has its own
process, which calls for public participation and evaluation of such proposals.

The fact that the federal commission has the authority to authorize such
lines over the wishes of state regulators “doesn't mean we're going to overturn
the state (decision) or that we're going to automatically give it to (the
utility),” she said.

SDG&E proposed building the Sunrise Powerlink in 2005. It said the
1,000-megawatt line from the Imperial Valley is needed to bring to San Diego
power from renewable sources like solar and wind and will help avoid blackouts.

Friday, an administrative law judge with the PUC recommended that the line be
rejected, saying the plan is bad for the environment and doesn't make economic
sense.

Commissioner Dian Grueneich, who was assigned to study the project, proposed
an alternate decision saying the line could be built, but along Interstate 8,
not through the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, and only if SDG&E can prove
it will get one-third of its power from renewable sources and uses the new line
for that purpose.

SDG&E officials wouldn't say yesterday whether they are willing to comply
with the conditions, but said Friday they preferred Grueneich's proposed
decision because it would allow the line to go forward.

The full commission will hear arguments on the issue Friday and could vote as
early as Dec. 4.

If it rejects the plan, it would create an opening for SDG&E to go to the
federal government.

“The FERC authority is something to watch,” said Scott Anders, director of
the Energy Policy Initiatives Center at the University of San Diego School of
Law.

Southern California is in one of two parts of the country the Department of
Energy has designated as “National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors.”
That means the federal government thinks there aren't enough power lines and
consumers are suffering as a result.

The California Independent System Operator, which runs the state's electric
grid, agrees that Sunrise is needed.

“It's a critical component to greening the grid,” spokeswoman Stephanie
McCorkle said. “We also need it to maintain reliability.”

Under the 2005 Energy Policy Act, California utilities can appeal when state
regulators reject power lines. Southern California Edison is challenging the
rejection by Arizona regulators of a line it wants for power from an Arizona
nuclear plant, said Connors, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
spokeswoman.

The federal law might even apply if the PUC approves a southern route winding
through East County but imposes the renewable-energy conditions Grueneich
proposed.

The federal commission has said an approval with conditions that don't reduce
congestion or are not economically feasible will be considered as a rejection.

It's far from clear whether the proposed conditions would apply.

“Does FERC have jurisdiction at all?” said Michael Shames, executive director
the Utility Consumers' Action Network and a Powerlink opponent.

After SDG&E said it preferred the commissioner's proposal that included
the conditions, “it's going to be very hard to bring this to FERC and say this
is a rejection,” Shames said.