Environment

Judge Considers Challenge To Sunrise Powerlink Tuesday

By Ed Joyce / Reporter

Published June 20, 2011 at 11:56 AM PDT

This story was published more than 13 years ago.

The first 142-foot Sunrise Powerlink transmission tower was completed March 9, near McCain Valley Road in Boulevard, just north of Interstate 8.

Judge Considers Challenge To Sunrise Powerlink Tuesday

A federal judge Tuesday in San Diego will consider a challenge to the Sunrise Powerlink project.

Opponents of the San Diego Gas and Electric project say a permit to build on federal land should not have been granted.

The hearing is over a lawsuit challenging the granting of a permit by the Bureau of Land Management allowing SDG&E to build the Sunrise Powerlink on BLM property.

The Protect Our Communities Foundation, Back Country Against Dumps, and the East County Community Action Coalition filed the lawsuit challenging the granting of the permit.

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David Hogan with the foundation said the judge has already read the briefs from each side on the case.

"All the paperwork's been done, all the briefs have been filed, all the arguments have been made," said Hogan. "Now the judge wants to hear in person the arguments and he could make a ruling Tuesday or he could make a ruling three months from now.

"What he's going to decide is whether to allow construction of the Sunrise Powerlink across several miles of public land."

Hogan said the route through BLM property would destroy sensitive lands in San Diego County's back country.

But the utility said the Sunrise Powerlink project has already survived at least 12 legal challenges and an intense approvals process.

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"SDG&E is confident that both the BLM and the Forest Service made their decisions based on a very extensive and complete record and these legal challenges will be unsuccessful," said SDG&E spokeswoman Jennifer Ramp.

Hogan said the group plans to appeal any decision upholding the BLM permit but he said he is confident the lawsuit will prevail.

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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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