Center for Biological Diversity
BECAUSE LIFE IS GOOD

Protecting endangered species and wild places through
science, policy, education, and environmental law.

For Immediate Release: August 4, 2006

Contact:
Kelly Fuller, Sierra Club, (619) 933-9969
David Hogan, Center for Biological Diversity, (760) 809-9244

New “Sunrise Powerlink” Application Expected Today
Project Still Likely to Harm Parks, People and Nature

San Diego – San Diego Gas and Electric is expected to file a new application today with the California Public Utilities Commission to construct the “Sunrise Powerlink” transmission line project, but conservationist are warning that little has changed with the controversial proposal.

“SDG&E may have filed a new application, but it’s the same awful and unnecessary project,” said David Hogan, Director of the Urban Wildlands Program at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Powerlink is like something out of the dark ages, undermining local electricity generation, discouraging renewable energy, and trashing parks, people and nature.”

“SDG&E really has nothing genuine to show for a recent massive public relations campaign,” said Sierra Club activist Kelly Fuller. “People recognize that most political support flows directly from generous campaign contributions by SDG&E employees, like the $10,475 donation to San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and $2,550 to Councilmember Jim Madaffer. SDG&E has used the feedback it got from the public to identify the places it was most likely to face litigation and adjusted its routes and undergrounding proposals to try to stay out of court. If the company really wanted to do people and nature a favor, it would instead spend the public’s money on more local energy generation and smaller, cheaper, less destructive transmission upgrades.”

The Sunrise Powerlink is a major new electrical transmission line project from the Imperial Valley desert to the north coastal City of San Diego. As initially proposed, the line would cut through the middle of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and many other habitat preserves, parks and communities, causing significant harm to nature and people. SDG&E documents reveal that the Powerlink is just the first phase of a larger master plan by parent company Sempra Energy to expand the California market for imported cheap, polluting, fossil-fuel power from its Mexico power plant and others.

For more information, please visit www.biologicaldiversity.org and Kelly Fuller’s blog at www.kdfuller.blogspot.com.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a non-profit conservation organization with more than 25,000 members dedicated to the protection of imperiled species and habitat.

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