About 300 people crowded into the Alpine Community Center last night for Dianne Jacob’s Town Forum on Sempra’s Sunrise PowerLink project. Several good points were made by 40 people who stood up to speak.

Sempra does not need Sunrise PowerLink to serve San Diego residents: There is already a network of power lines running along our U.S.-Mexico border from El Centro which could be improved to take additional loads. The new power lines will cost rate payers $2 billion. For that money we can buy a lot of rooftop solar panels. Sempra claimed it had done environmental impact studies, which in fact it had not done, and has changed its route to go through environmentally sensitive areas without disclosing those changes of plans. Several of the area’s worst fires in 2003 and 2007 were started by SDG&E arcing power lines, and we will CERTAINLY be imperiled by at least one major fire per decade by this project if built (14 people died and 2,000 homes were lost in 2007). The power lines themselves will prevent arial water drops on wildfires 1000 feet on either side during heavy winds, thus ensuring fires not started by arcing power lines will not be safely fought.

Thank you to Dianne Jacob, our stalwart County Supervisor, for leading the fight against this project which appears to be designed solely to serve Sempra investor interests, not the interests of San Diego County residents.