Post-Meeting Analysis: Yucca Valley LADWP Meeting 7/19/08
To date, actions speak louder than words
On July 19, 2008, Los Angeles Department of Water & Power General Manager David Nahai came to a community meeting in Yucca Valley to talk about the Green Path North transmission line project. With conviction, Mr Nahai told the audience that the GPN Project "is still in its infancy" and that he personally is making a difference at LADWP with respect to the project.
Not to impugn Nahai's sincerity, but the 3-year-long history of GPN indicates a project far along in LADWP's planning process. LADWP has spent nearly $26 million to date on the project and has already completed feasibility studies on 5 routes. Nahai says he has made a difference since he became general manager, pointing to the removal of survey markers, but does not mention that he was on the LADWP Board of Commissioners during the full 3-year GPN planning process.
Most disturbing is Mr. Nahai's continuing contention that LADWP does not have a preferred route for GPN. Even subsequent to the Yucca Valley meeting, the Imperial Irrigation District, LADWP's partner in GPN, displays the one route and only one route that, according to public records, LADWP has worked to establish since July 2006. This is the environmentally destructive route through the high desert and its communities.
The Green Path North SM Project
Following is a history of the utility's efforts to get this route approved, including efforts to establish this route as a new energy corridor. Beginning with the July 7, 2006, entry below, the words "GPN route" refer to this one route from Desert Hot Springs, through the high desert, and on to Hesperia (or its variant ending in Victorville).
July 7, 2006
This map labels the GPN route "Green Path Preferred Route."
November 8, 2006
December 27, 2006
LADWP's transmission line project application to the BLM requests a right-of-way (ROW) on public lands that is the same GPN route through the high desert. The application does not request ROW for any other alternative route. The application schedule indicates “Selection of Preferred Alignment (COMPLETED)” with a “Finish” date of 7/14/06.
LADWP installs survey markers along GPN route (and only this route) without notifying private property owners or the Bureau of Land Management.
April 2007
September 2007
LADWP's GPN route shows up on this CPUC map.
LADWP writes to the DOE on the last day of public comment for the West-Wide Energy Corridor Draft PEIS to reiterate its expected need for a new energy corridor.
February 14, 2008
