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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 5929 1 BORREGO SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA, MAY 12, 2008 - 1:05 P.M. 2 * * * * * 3 ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGE WEISSMAN: With that in 4 mind, let's a start with Michael Aguirre, City Attorney 5 for San Diego. 6 STATEMENT OF MR. AGUIRRE 7 MR. AGUIRRE: Thank you very much. 8 I want to applaud the Commission for its work 9 in leading the nation in the essential transition to 10 renewable energy. Each day more and more of our fellow 11 citizens are coming to recognize the preeminent 12 importance of shifting from fossil fuels to renewable 13 energy, and each day the need to accelerate our efforts 14 in making the shift becomes more imperative. 15 Where once the state's mandate for 20-percent 16 renewable by the year 2010 seemed ambitious, 20 percent 17 by 2010 should now be seen as an essential minimum. 18 Unfortunately San Diego gas & Electric has 19 told the Securities and Exchange Commission, quote: It 20 is unlikely that it will be able to meet the 2010 goal. 21 As San Diego City Attorney I'm charged with 22 enforcing the City's franchise agreement with SDG&E. 23 That agreement requires the utility to be in compliance 24 with all state laws, including the Renewable Portfolio 25 Standard. So, should SDG&E fall out of compliance with 26 California's renewable law, that failure may well have 27 implications for the utility's franchise agreement. 28 That's a place I hope we do not have to go. PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION, STATE OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 5930 1 While the debate about transmission projects 2 like Sunrise go through the complex and lengthy 3 considerations they require, I urge this Commission to 4 remember that power lines are agnostic. They can carry 5 dirty fossil-fueled generated power just as anything 6 else. 7 I urge you to ensure that SDG&E submits a 8 utility-scale rooftop-PV project of no less than 300 9 megawatts within 60 days. 10 Thank you for your time. 11 (Applause) 12 ALJ WEISSMAN: Thank you. 13 I'll encourage you to get the applause out of 14 your system as we go through the public officials, but 15 after we finish I am going to have do ask you not to 16 applaud. You'll soon find that that will actually erode 17 the amount of time available for speakers, and we really 18 do want to make sure that everybody gets a chance to be 19 heard. 20 With that, Supervisor -- San Diego Supervisor 21 Dianne Jacob. 22 STATEMENT OF SUPERVISOR JACOB 23 MS. JACOB: Thank you very much, Commissioners. 24 And I'm going to try my best to do this in 90 25 seconds, but it's going to be tough. 26 I have some new information to present to you, 27 and I will give you my written testimony. 28 But this afternoon -- and I think it's very PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION, STATE OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 5931 1 appropriate because we're here in Borrego Springs -- 2 this area hosted many fire victims that were evacuated 3 from homes during the 2007 wildfires, and it wasn't the 4 first time. The same thing happened in 2003 during the 5 largest fire disaster in state history, the Cedar fire. 6 I have a map for you, and again I will pass 7 out little maps, too. 8 What you are going to see -- what you're 9 seeing on this map are the fire boundaries of the 2003 10 and the 2007 wildfires. 11 And notice the overlap areas where the fire 12 burned in '03 and again in '07. 13 And the white area is the area yet to burn, 14 and it will burn. 15 To people who are unfamiliar with San Diego 16 County, this map is horrifying, but to many of us in the 17 room the map -- this map is our way of life. 18 Our County is dominated by a Mediterranean 19 climate. The areas on this map especially are home to 20 dense, drought-adaptive brush that is highly flammable. 21 Add 70- to 100-mile-per-hour Santa Ana winds 22 to this equation and you get all the ingredients of a 23 perfect firestorm. 24 The information isn't new. It's been this way 25 for a century. 26 And if you go to the environmental document, 27 Section D15, page 1, describes it perfectly: one of the 28 most fire-prone landscapes in the world. PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION, STATE OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 5932 1 Now let's take a look at SDG&E's Preferred 2 Route for Sunrise, and you'll see that it goes right 3 through this area. 4 The alternative routes don't fare much better 5 than that. 6 In the entire 6,000 page Draft EIR there is 7 one page that I want to point out to you that I don't 8 think is has gotten enough attention that rises above 9 all others in terms of importance, and that page is in 10 the Fire and Fuels Management Section, page D15 through 11 69. This page describes computer modeling used to 12 simulate the impact of Santa Ana wind conditions on the 13 Sunrise PowerLink's Preferred Route. 14 The computer simulation examined three things: 15 fire behavior, burn probability, and containment. 16 Table D15 24 summarizes what I believe are 17 deadly conclusions. 18 For the Ranchita, San Felipe, Santa Ysabel, 19 Ramona, and Poway areas the analysis came to these 20 conclusions: 21 Number one, construction and maintenance of 22 the line would significantly increase the probability of 23 wildfire; 24 Number two, the line itself would increase the 25 probability of wildfire; and 26 Three, the line would reduce the effectiveness 27 of fire-fighting efforts. 28 Each of these conclusions will rank from PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION, STATE OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 5933 1 Class I to Class IV, Class IV being beneficial for the 2 land, Class I meaning cannot be mitigated. 3 For Ranchita, San Felipe, Santa Ysabel, 4 Ramona, and Poway the news couldn't be any worse: the 5 presence of Sunrise would be a Class I threat. 6 With regard to reducing the effectiveness of 7 the fire fighting, Sunrise would again be a Class I 8 threat. 9 And let me repeat, a Class I ranking means the 10 danger cannot be mitigated. 11 Commissioners, thank you again for being here. 12 It's my very strong belief that what SDG&E is 13 asking you to approve is the equivalent of walking into 14 our fire-prone backcountry during Santa Ana wind 15 conditions, striking a match, and throwing it on the 16 ground. 17 Given what this region endured in 2003 and 18 2007, SDG&E's continued push for this line is 19 unconscionable. 20 The utility wants you to gamble with human 21 lives. Please don't do this. 22 Fire-fighting aircraft cannot make effective 23 water drops over a 500-kV line in high-wind conditions. 24 Ground attacks cannot be made within 500 feet 25 of a power-line conductor. 26 This is a fire-fighting rule of thumb, and 27 it's also noted in the Draft Environmental Document. 28 And, indeed, during the '07 Harris fire the PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION, STATE OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 5934 1 existing 500-kV Southwest Power Line had to be shut down 2 to protect the safety of crews. 3 Recently SDG&E has taken to saying that 4 smaller distribution lines, not transmission lines, are 5 more likely to cause wildfire. 6 Statistics in the Draft Environmental Impact 7 Report tell a different story. 8 If you use SDG&E's own data, the Draft EIR 9 states that between 2004 and 2006 there were nine fires 10 touched off by transmission lines in SDG&E's service 11 territory. 12 Two of those nine fires were caused by heavy 13 winds. 14 At this time I would point out that the Draft 15 EIR computer modeling software used 50 -- only 50-mile- 16 an-hour wind conditions to simulation extreme 17 conditions. Santa Ana's can be twice that. 18 I think it's really, really important to 19 understand the financial liability that is associated 20 with power lines in fire-prone landscape. 21 If you talked to the National Guard in '07, a 22 National Guard helicopter clipped a power line, touched 23 off the 61,000 acre Pine fires near Julian. 24 37 homes were destroyed. Legal claims 25 followed that. 26 At the very least I would beg the Commission 27 to seek a formal opinion from Cal Fire before it makes a 28 final determination on this line. PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION, STATE OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 5935 1 If you find you need the line, at least 2 underground the whole thing. 3 The stakes are simply too high to put above 4 lines in these areas. 5 I stand opposed to this project. 6 I do not think it's needed. 7 I think there are better ways. 8 Your environmental document points that out. 9 But, please, if I leave you with one thing in 10 your minds today, please be sensitive to what's in your 11 own environmental document in terms of the fire risks of 12 this line.
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