The Daily Aztec

Issue date: 10/16/07 Section: Travel & Adventure

Media Credit: MCT Campus "The Anza-Borrego desert, less than an hour away from San Diego State, has been used as a home, a place of exploration and a geological wonder for desert enthusiasts."

The Anza-Borrego desert, less than an hour away from San Diego State, has been used as a home, a place of exploration and a geological wonder for desert enthusiasts. Now it's the proposed location for SDG&E's Sunrise Powerlink, a series of electrical lines.

Micah Mitrosky is a staff member in the Sierra Club and a conservation organizer of the smart energy campaign. This means that when she's not promoting clean, local and renewable energy, she's trying to stop a construction of Sunrise Powerlink.

According to Mitrosky, the controversy first began when a federal agency began creating National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors. These sites were seen as places that could help strengthen America's energy infrastructure.

Mitrosky said she would expect a corridor to be a smaller designated area. The federal government thought otherwise. The entire state of New Jersey, for example, is now an NIETC.

Another site is southern California, which is why SDG&E was able to propose putting lines through a state park, which is exactly what they did.

SDG&E currently has one contract solar plant using experimental energy, according to Mitrosky.

Several people see the solar plant as a doomed project. Mitrosky claims that engineers contracted by the Sierra Club and even a high-ranking employee in the site have said this type of solar-energy is not likely to work.

The real motivation for the project, according to Mitrosky, is to sell electricity to Los Angeles from Mexico that has been generated by liquefied natural gas.

SDG&E is owned by Sempra Energy. This parent company is building gas pipelines in Mexico across the Baja peninsula. The liquefied gas is offloaded from tankers coming from Indonesia.

This process was deemed too dirty for California's environmental standards, according to Mitrosky.

SDG&E has information about its project at www.sdge.com/sunrisepowerlink.com. The site has a list of myths and facts, as well as maps and other information about the construction.

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