Despite utility pullout TANC fight goes on; SMUD says it plans to expand its own wind project
The utility companies studying a proposed 600-mile system of transmission lines through rural Northern California are scrambling to determine their next move after their largest partner dropped out of the project.
But opponents of the project are still girded for a fight.
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District, which would have been responsible for about a third of the $1.5 billion projected cost of the Transmission Agency of Northern California lines, informed TANC that it was withdrawing, it was announced late Wednesday, July 1.
Sacramento officials said they were concerned about recent state studies that questioned the viability of Lassen County, a proposed terminus for the line, as a producer of green energy and concluded that a better resource would be the Mojave Desert.
SMUD has been examining the project’s feasibility on its own, apart from the TANC scoping process, and found the project wanting, spokeswoman Elisabeth Brinton said.
“Since the project was started, some new information has come forward, and we really came to the conclusion that it wasn’t in the best interests of our customers at this time,” Brinton said. “There were more questions than answers, and frankly the economics of the project … were in question.”
According to a January final report from a stakeholders’ panel for the state’s Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative, the Imperial, Tehachapi and Fairmont areas were identified as among the most efficient and environmentally friendly areas for renewable energy.
Lassen County, on the other hand, was ranked as the least cost-effective and environmentally benign among the nearly 40 areas studied.
“We felt that we had made a good investment of $2 million” to study the project, Brinton said last week, “but that we weren’t comfortable enough to proceed with spending additional dollars.”
SMUD decided it would be better off expanding its own wind project in Solano County and adding solar panels there, and also relying on some smaller renewable-energy projects, Brinton said.
However, the utility’s pullout doesn’t necessarily mean the demise of the TANC project. The agency will continue to “determine where to put the transmission lines needed to ensure reliable and affordable electric service” and “to expand access to clean energy sources,” read an agency statement issued July 1.
SMUD was one of five city utilities that agreed to put up money for the transmission project, which would include a series of substations, towers and electrical wires that would run from Lassen and Shasta counties down the valley to new substations south of Sacramento. The other cities are Redding, Modesto, Turlock and Santa Clara.
“The bottom line is new transmission is needed in Northern California,” TANC spokesman Brendan Wonnacott said. “We have to improve the reliability of the transmission system. We have to reduce bottlenecks in overburdened lines, and we have to make it easier to import hydroelectric (power). … And we have to meet California’s renewable energy and greenhouse gas goals. To do that, we have to access green energy.”
Wonnacott said he didn’t know whether TANC would need other utilities to step in and help for the project to remain affordable. He said the agency needs to “take a step back and kind of figure out where to go now.”
In light of SMUD’s pullout, TANC said it would not send representatives to three scheduled public informational meetings this month — in Redding on July 8, in Orland on July 9 and in Red Bluff on July 16. The meetings were to include local officials who would take input and answer questions about the project.
The TANC project has drawn a flood of opposition, including that from farmers and ranchers who fear it could cause the loss of an estimated 15,000 acres of cropland. The transmission agency has so far received more than 4,500 written comments on the project, and comments will still be accepted through July 30.
Many opponents from both inside and outside Sacramento brought their objections to the SMUD board, Brinton said.
“People are concerned. There’s a lot of questions,” she said. “We respect those concerns and actually had some of those same concerns ourselves.”
The critics’ efforts are showing no signs of dissipating. With the defiant cry — “This is not over!” — opponents planned to go ahead with a rally and march that was to precede the Redding public meeting on July 8, according to their website, www.stoptanc.com.
The “Stop TANC” group was highly visible during last weekend’s Fourth of July festivities in Burney, where they set up a booth to provide information to attendees.
Rocky Compton, a Round Mountain resident who has helped lead opposition to the project, was pleased about SMUD’s withdrawal but said he intended to keep fighting the project.
“I’m really relieved,” said Compton, whose family owns about 85 acres in eastern Shasta County. “But I’m not getting off of the opposition until I know that it’s history.
“Maybe SMUD wanted to save face, I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe they didn’t anticipate the amount of opposition and the knowledge of the people involved with the opposition. I think we overwhelmed them with facts in every meeting that we had.”
Tim Hearden
9 July 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
Some possibly related stories:
The copyright of this article is owned by the author or publisher indicated. Its availability here constitutes a "fair use" as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law as well as in similar "fair dealing" exceptions of the copyright laws of other nations, as part of National Wind Watch's effort to advance understanding of the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development. For more information, click here.
