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SAN DIEGO, Calif., Dec. 20, 2002 -- EDC President and CEO Julie Meier Wright expressed outrage at the California Public Utility Commission's ruling today, which effectively killed the Valley-Rainbow Interconnect project.
Said Wright, "I am deeply troubled by the PUC actions. Today the Commission bet the future of the San Diego region on two aging power plants and a yet-to-be-constructed facility that is far from assured."
"The actions by the PUC," Wright continued, "make it all the more imperative that Governor Davis take action to ensure that the Otay Mesa power plant gets built. Without that plant, it is impossible to guarantee that companies and businesses in our community will have access to reliable power past 2005."
"It is also clear that California has to address the way that it makes decisions about infrastructure projects. This process -- critical to the economic future of over three million Californians -- was hijacked by politics and NIMBYs. In such an environment it is little wonder that California is faced with a serious inability to move power from where it is produced to where it is needed."
The California Public Utilities Commission, by a 3-2 vote, said that there was no need to move forward with planning and environmental review for the Valley Rainbow Interconnect project. This transmission line -- from the Valley substation in southern Riverside County to a proposed substation in Rainbow -- would have been only the third transmission line tying San Diego to the rest of state's power grid. The PUC's own Administrative Law Judge determined that the line would be needed if the Otay power plant is delayed or if aging power plants in Chula Vista and Carlsbad are not replaced.
Source: San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp.
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