Environment

Appeals Filed Challenging Sunrise Powerlink Approval

By Ed Joyce / Reporter

Published August 12, 2009 at 1:15 PM PDT

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

Opponents of the proposed Sunrise Powerlink transmission line are appealing a state agency's approval of the project. The Utility Consumers Action Network is filing two appeals with different courts.

Opponents of the proposed Sunrise Powerlink transmission line are appealing a state agency's approval of the project.

The Utility Consumers Action Network is filing two appeals with different courts. Michael Shames with UCAN says one challenge will be filed jointly with the Center for Biological Diversity to the state Supreme Court.

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He says that petition argues the state Public Utilities Commission violated California's Environmental Quality Act.

"And we show a fair number of very clear violations of that environmental protection law," Shames says. "Both processes as well as just details that the commission were obligated to review and analyze before approving a project. And it simply failed to do so."

Shames says the other petition will be filed with the Fourth District Court of Appeals.

He says the PUC violated statutes and rules in considering alternatives for the Sunrise Powerlink project.

Shames also says the commission relied on information outside of the evidentiary process in approving the project.

Environment

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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