DesertBlog

Why Protect the Desert?

The Sunrise Powerlink would run at the base of the distant mountains in this photo, altering the experience of hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail in the San Felipe Hills.

“The desert’s a good place for the Sunrise Powerlink — there’s nothing out there.” Those were the most ignorant words I heard at San Diego’s Earth Fair. That sentiment that the desert is a good place for all sorts of infrastructure is being heard a lot these days, from the random person on the street to the Governator.

Which raises the question, what is it about these apparently lifeless places that draws desert enthusiasts’ fascination and love? For me, the scenic or aesthetic is a big part, but only a part, of what I love about the place: the desert’s sense of openness, vastness, wildness and austerity, features which repel some people, are attractive to me. But beyond the scenic, there’s the knowledge, gained only with direct experience, that behind all that apparent lifelessness, life perseveres. That the lifeless appearance is actually the result of survival strategies adopted by many desert plants and some desert animals. That this perseverance is in itself something admirable. That on certain occasions, as we’ve seen this spring, the desert can burst forth with remarkable fecundity.

Chris Clarke’s Creek Running North has a great post on just this issue of the scenic versus desolate qualities of the desert. Chris, who has been the editor of Faultline online environmental journal and Earth Island Journal, describes himself as a “misanthropic dog-and-desert nature poetry blogger.” Chris will be making occasional posts on DesertBlog, so check out his Scenic/Desolate post for a preview.

What do you find that’s scenic in the desert, even in its most austere forms? What do you find that’s worth protecting? Post your comments in the space provided below.

Another power line? Thanks, already got one… but real green power I could use.
Fortunately, for the immediate issue of protecting San Diego and Imperial County deserts from the Sunrise Powerlink, it’s not really a question of choosing between this boondoggle and our scenic backcountry landscapes in all their diversity of life. That’s because the thin veneer of green paint SDG&E and the Chamber have slapped on this thing continues to peel, as shown in this column by Union-Tribune business columnist Dean Calbreath. In addition, there are many much better alternatives to the Powerlink, ones that actually do promote “green energy” in all its senses. And if we must go to the Imperial Valley for renewables, we already have the Southwest Powerlink for that — we just need to take the fossil fuel energy off of it first.

Please attend the May 12 hearings in Borrego Springs to tell the California Public Utilities Commission you want these real green energy alternatives; if you can’t attend, send us a letter that we’ll deliver for you. Full details on the hearing and a form letter are available on our Sunrise Powerlink page.

May 12 Sunrise Powerlink Rendezvous in Borrego Springs

People came from all over to voice their opposition to the Sunrise Powerlink during the hearings in February.  Now we have an even better chance to make our voices heard.   (Photo by Diana Lindsay.)

For the past couple weeks, DesertBlog has regularly mentioned the extremely important Sunrise Powerlink hearings in Borrego Springs on May 12. Now we’ve posted a complete alert on our website. The page contains tips on attending the hearings, talking points, links to maps, and more. Attending the hearing is the most important action you can take in the next month to stop the Sunrise Powerlink. However, if you absolutely can’t attend the hearings, the alert also has links to suggested “talking points” for writing your own comment letter to the CPUC and to a form letter to the CPUC. Send the letters to us (contact info on the web page) and we’ll turn them in for you at the May 12 hearings.

Other ways to help. If you live in the San Diego region and want to do more than attend the hearing or write a comment letter, the Smart Energy Solutions Campaign is holding two mobilization meetings, on the evenings of May 5 in Borrego Springs and May 8 in Lakeside, where volunteers can help promote a large turnout to the May 12 hearings. Links to flyers are also on our alert.

Let’s fill the Borrego Springs Resort to overflowing on May 12!

Update: The Anza-Borrego Foundation has a similar alert, focusing on Anza-Borrego Desert State Park on its Sunrise Powerlink page.

More Sunrise Powerlink News from San Diego EarthFair

I didn’t get to see the mayoral forum at Sunday’s EarthFair in Balboa Park, but I heard several accounts that challenger Steve Francis just about came out against the Sunrise Powerlink with many critical comments about this boondoggle. (Yesterday, Francis formally announced opposition to the Regents Road Bridge, which I like to call the Regents Deathlink because it will add 20,000 vehicle trips a day through an elementary school crossing on Regents Road in University City, and also violate Rose Canyon Open Space Park.)

I had also heard that Mayor Jerry Sanders refused to shake Francis’ hand at the end of the debate, probably because he was ticked off at being soundly booed by the crowd during the hour. Now more details are emerging. Pat Flannery’s Blog of San Diego reports today that Sanders not only didn’t shake Francis’ hand, but made an ugly comment in passing. Flannery also has large video files of the debate on his blog.

San Diego CityBeat also has coverage of the forum here.

And here’s a third-hand account: after the mayoral forum, Francis told a Sunrise Powerlink opponent that “we ought to stop it.” (If you’re that opponent, please leave a comment and give us a direct quote.)

In other Sunrise Powerlink News: Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee has a column today that needs responding to. Seems he’s been quaffing the SDG&E koolaid.

Happy Birthday, John Muir!

 In honor of the day, here’s a bit from “Two Little Feet” by Greg Brown:

 I got two little feet to get me ‘cross the mountain

two little feet to carry me away into the woods

Two little feet, a big mountain, and a

cloud comin’ down cloud comin’ down cloud comin’ down

….

John Muir walked away into the mountains

in his old overcoat, a crust of bread in his pocket

we have no knowledge and so we have stuff and

stuff with no knowledge is never enough to get you there

it just won’t get you there

      – Greg Brown, “Two Little Feet”

San Diego Earth Day Report

Groups fighting the Sunrise Powerlink and promoting greener energy options were all over Sunday’s Earth Day celebration in San Diego’s Balboa Park.

On my way to the Friends of Rose Canyon booth (where we spread the word about another “unnecessary infrastructure in parks” issue), I passed the Communities United for Sensible Power booth, where Carolyn Morrow was selling tickets to Ranchita Rocks 2, which will be held September 12, 13, & 14 this year. The earlier you buy your tickets, the cheaper they’ll be. Let’s hope the Sunrise Powerlink is just a bad memory by then!

Later, on my way down to the Sun Stage for lunch, I stopped at the Donate-A-Pack Foundation booth. Turns out the program is run by the good folks at Adventure 16, and they can bring new life to even the most ancient pack. Then they donate it to outdoor education groups like Outward Bound, Big City Mountaineers, Sierra Club Inner City Outings, and more. Not only were they promoting this good work, they also were helping to spread the word about the harm the Sunrise Powerlink will do to San Diego’s backcountry, where many of their customers recreate.

A blues-rock band – didn’t catch their name – was playing at the Sun Stage, and also promoting the upcoming Ranchita Rocks festival. (Kathleen Beck’s group had played earlier, but my FRC duties kept me from getting to that one. Her song “Wires” should become our campaign’s anthem.)

At the San Diego Smart Energy Solutions booth, organizer Micah Mitrosky, the Sierra Club’s Richard Miller, and their band of volunteers had already given away all of their compact fluorescent bulbs, were just about out of Polaroid film, and had collected 300 comment cards against the Powerlink that will be turned in at the May 12 CPUC hearing. The pitch to passersby was, “Get your photo taken with our Pro-Smart Energy, Anti-Sunrise Powerlink sign, attach it to a comment card and write your personal message, and get a free CFL.” Even after the bulbs were gone, we got another 50 to 100 comment cards in the next two hours, bringing the total for the day to about 400, most with pictures proving a real person is behind the comment. Way to go Micah, Richard, and all the volunteers!

Another volunteer at the booth was Bob Baran, whose Anza-Borrego.net not only has great information on hiking and wheeling trips in Anza-Borrego, but also a lot of Sunrise Powerlink info. Turns out Bob is also our second registered user of DesertBlog. Welcome, Bob!

There were probably more groups at Earth Day with Sunrise Powerlink info that I missed. (The SDG&E booth was noticeably absent of any SPL propaganda. It was all energy efficiency and conservation. Good job, SDG&E, let’s have more of that, and less of the towering steel structures.)

Yesterday’s event jammed traffic all around Balboa Park. Let’s hope we have a traffic jam half that size out in Borrego on May 12.

Sunrise Powerlink Quick Hits

Stirling Solar gets a boost: Several papers report today that Stirling Energy Systems has acquired funding from an Irish toll road company (a toll road company — sort of makes you feel warm all over, doesn’t it?). Oh, and they’ve got a cute new name for their dishes: “SunCatcher”. Good for Stirling, which should be bringing us solar power sometime around 2020 (according to energy expert Barry Butler and his testimony last summer).

In the U-T article, one executive made the unsupported claim that the dishes provide power at 1/5th the cost of solar panels. Good thing the California Energy Commission has already given us an objective cost estimate for Stirling: $6 per watt plus “shipping and handling” (as compared to the $3.85 per watt SoCal Edison claims for its planned solar panel installation, no shipping required). Who are you going to believe?

The bottom line: solar panels cost half as much as solar dishes in the desert — and they work!

One Sunrise proponent’s take on the ongoing Phase 2 hearings in San Francisco: Jesus Arredondo has been providing hour-by-hour accounts on some days of the hearings on his pro-Powerlink “It’s the Infrastructure, Stupid” blog. (I like to call it the “It’s the STUPID Infrastructure” blog.) On Tuesday, he seemed a little concerned with Administrative Law Judge Steven Weissman’s attitude toward the Powerlink, and his questioning of a witness about whether “traditional or cultural areas” could be developed. Arredondo wrote:

“The answer was yes [cultural areas can be developed], if specific mitigation can be identified. The ALJ did not let go of the issue very swiftly, which makes me wonder if he has a disposition to a desired or expected answer… this is important as it might be a telling view of the ALJ’s thinking.”

No, we don’t think Weissman is biased against the Powerlink, just objectively weighing its merits and many demerits. And Weissman’s scheduling of the additional hearings May 12 in Borrego Springs also seems like a positive sign…

Updating Wednesday’s post on “Bride of Sunrise”: Simultaneous with our post, SDG&E officials were clarifying the exact location of their contemplated second major transmission line, which was left wide open in their earlier statements. At the ongoing CPUC hearings in San Francisco on Wednesday, the company revealed that this potential second power line would run from Warner Springs to Scripps Ranch on a path “co-located” with their currently proposed Sunrise Powerlink. So, instead of imagining twin massive power lines running all the way from Imperial County through Anza-Borrego and into San Diego, just imagine those twin lines running through Santa Ysabel and other backcountry communities….

What remains unclear is exactly how the 700 to 1000 megawatts of additional renewable power would arrive at Warner Springs, if not via an additional transmission line from Imperial County. We’ll keep you posted as we get more info.

Bride of Sunrise Powerlink in the Offing?

Still from “Bride of Frankenstein.” Even Dr. Frankenstein finished creating his first monster before going on to his next mad idea. 

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, SDG&E has now raised the possibility that two massive transmission lines could traverse Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, doubly ruining the wilderness values of this desert landscape forever.

In its direct testimony for the ongoing Phase 2 Evidentiary Hearings on the Sunrise Powerlink, SDG&E says that there’s a possibility that the state could increase renewable energy mandates from the current 20% to 33% or even 50% to fight global warming. The company contends that this move would in turn necessitate an additional power line paralleling Sunrise through the park and through backcountry communities such as Ranchita. In arguing for the company’s preferred northern alignment, the document says, “an additional high transmission line beyond Sunrise could be required to physically deliver these resources.” If the northern alignment through the park were chosen, then the additional line could be “co-located” with Sunrise (and we thought adjacent transmission lines were supposed to decrease reliability!).

The company has done backflips to shoe-horn its proposed Sunrise line into the existing right of way through Anza-Borrego. By staying in the right of way, the proposed line will avoid state wilderness areas and, the company hopes, a contentious hearing before the State Parks Commission. Is there a chance this new line would also avoid the wilderness? Our guess is, “not likely.” But at that point, the company’s argument would be: “There’s already a large power line there. What difference does one more make?” So the Sunrise Powerlink, in addition to being a wasteful, destructive and expensive boondoggle, is a foot in the door to allowing “de-designation” of state wilderness areas, along with even more devastation. It’s an odd kind of Trojan horse, one that nobody wants in the first place.

This new development makes it even more important that we have a large turnout at the upcoming Public Utilities Commission hearings on the afternoon and evening of May 12 in Borrego Springs. Everyone who cares about the development of true green energy alternatives, or about protecting parks and backcountry landscapes, should be there to make your voices heard. (More details to come.)

Oh, and about that right of way through Anza-Borrego: The hearings in San Francisco today revealed that SDG&E doesn’t even control that right of way — BLM and the Imperial Irrigation District do.

To read SDG&E’s statements on this additional line for yourself, go to page 6.26 of this document (warning: 7 MB!) or check the screen shot below. (Thanks to the Sierra Club and Center for Biological Diversity for digging this tidbit out of SDG&E’s testimony and including it in their comments on the Draft EIR.)

New Algodones/Imperial Sand Dunes Planning Process

The Algodones Dunes, photo by Andrew Harvey.

The beautiful Algodones Dunes lie on the eastern edge of Imperial Valley. Besides being vast and magnificent, they contain a number of plants and animals that live nowhere else in the world, including the threatened Peirson’s Milkvetch and the Dunes Scarab Beetle. These creatures are threatened by off-road vehicles. Currently about half of this largest dune system in the southwest is open to off-road vehicle use and half is protected for conservation and for non-motorized recreation. The BLM is currently beginning the public process for revising the current recreation management plan for the Dunes and has scheduled 3 public scoping meetings on April 22nd in San Diego, on April 23rd in Phoenix and April 24th in El Centro.

If you love the desert and want to help protect these magnificent dunes, please attend one of these meetings and tell the BLM that the current situation of half the dunes being open to off-roading and half protected for conservation and other types of recreation is fair and is working. Tell the BLM that you want the Algodones Dunes National Natural Landmark with all of its special creatures to be preserved for future generations.

For more information on the Dunes Recreation Area Management Plan and for details on next week’s meetings, please visit our Algodones Dunes web page. To find out what these places are like when visited on foot, you can read this narrative of a hike through one of the interim vehicle closures.

Two Forms of Desert Wildlife This Week

The past two weeks may have convinced you that it’s all Sunrise Powerlink all the time here at DesertBlog, but we’re interested in other topics too. Really… how about these two events for some relief from the gloom and doom?

Starting Wednesday and extending through Sunday, the 2008 Yuma Birding and Nature Festival offers 32 field trips, with opportunities to view wildlife of the Colorado (Sonoran) Desert, such as the burrowing owl and desert bighorn. Several of the trips will step over the state line into California, with visits to the Algodones Dunes, Salton Sea, and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Check the Arizona Daily Star and the Fest’s website for more info.

Up in the Mojave, the Rockin’ for Joshua Tree benefit concert runs April 18 & 19 in Pioneertown. Proceeds from the concert, auctions and drawings go to benefit the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice and the Desert Protection Society in their legal efforts to stop the Eagle Mountain dump, which threatens Joshua Tree National Park. (But organizers promise there won’t be any gloom and doom!) Prizes in the drawing include stays at the 29 Palms Inn and the Joshua Tree Rock House. Check the concert’s website for more details.

And of course, don’t forget your local Earth Day Celebration!

Sunrise Powerlink — So San Diego

“That’s so San Diego!” This was my wife’s response to yesterday’s excellent column by Dean Calbreath in the U-T, comparing the Sunrise Powerlink with locally generated solar power. In particular, she was responding to the article’s conclusion that solar power delivered by the Sunrise Powerlink would cost almost twice as much as locally generated solar power ($6 per watt vs. $3.85 per watt). Gee, what does that remind you of? Maybe the Chargers ticket guarantee, energy deregulation, or the city’s underfunded pension plan?

In addition to the cost comparison, Calbreath’s article covered most of the other bases, and he relies on quite a bit of documented evidence: San Diego does in fact have ample sunshine (SDG&E says the sun never shines here) and ample rooftop space for photovoltaic panels (SDG&E veep Mike Niggli says there are no buildings in San Diego). SDG&E wants us to believe the only alternatives to the Sunrise Powerlink are static electricity or “weasel power.” (Seriously! Just check YouTube.)

The article leaves open the question of why SDG&E hasn’t pursued local solar more aggressively. Why does the company keep ridiculously overestimating the costs and underestimating the capacity of local solar? Perhaps the company isn’t really interested in pursuing renewable energy at all? Perhaps what it really wants is to complete one more section of Sempra’s original “Full Loop” for fossil fuel energy?

The real question at this point is why the expensive and destructive Sunrise Powerlink is still on the table as an energy option for San Diego, especially when there are so many better options out there. As comments from San Diego County’s land use department pointed out, “It is unclear why this alternative was selected for analysis [in the EIR] as the Proposed Project considering its relatively low ranking” (in its ability to meet project goals with the least harm to the environment).

Could the fact that this bad project refuses to die be a result of the usual alliance of San Diego power brokers pursuing anything but the civic interest?

Let’s see, city officials and Chamber types getting behind a “solution” that is the most environmentally damaging, the most wasteful, the least secure, and the most expensive for the average citizen, but the one that enriches the wealthiest corporation in our region — that’s SO San Diego.