Two environmental organizations are challenging San Diego Gas and Electric's $2 billion Sunrise Powerlink project. KPBS Environmental Reporter Ed Joyce has the story.
The Center for Biological Diversity wants the California Supreme Court to stop the Sunrise Powerlink.
The group says the state Public Utilities Commission violated state law by approving the project and the PUC didn't properly consider the environmental effects of the Powerlink.
The Center also plans to ask the PUC to reconsider its approval of the project.
Michael Shames with the Utility Consumers' Action Network is also filing an appeal with the PUC.
Shames:
And what we are showing is that the decision to approve that Powerlink was an exercise in regulatory wish fulfillment. Rather than accepting the actual facts in the case, the regulators contorted the evidence to achieve their objective of approving the line despite the facts.
Shames says the PUC approved the project because it would add renewable energy sources to the state's electrical grid. But he says that's not the case.
The line would follow a southern route that follows Interstate 8 and avoids the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.
An SDG&E spokeswoman says the utility is not surprised by the lawsuit saying the PUC made the right decision last month when it voted 4-1 to approve the project.
Ed Joyce, KPBS News.
