More Arizona power could be headed to California

More Arizona electricity could be headed to Southern California after the U.S. Department of Energy denied requests Thursday to reconsider its designation of a power transmission corridor between Arizona and California.

Environmentalists and state regulators had sought a rehearing of the Southwest Corridor and another corridor designated in the Mid-Atlantic States, saying the rulings would lead to additional power line construction that would damage the environment and override decisions made by state regulators to reject such lines.

Proponents of the designation said additional high voltage power lines are needed in the corridors to supply more electricity to areas of high demand in Southern California and the East Coast.

“The findings of congestion in the designated areas are well-founded and based on data and studies as required by statute,” the DOE said in a statement.

Members of the Arizona Corporation Commission, which regulates the routing of transmission lines in Arizona, expressed disappointment with the decision, saying it could result in power produced in Arizona being diverted to California when it is needed here.

Commissioner Jeff Hatch-Miller said political pressure from California’s Congressional delegation may have influenced the decision.

“I am deeply disappointed in the Department of Energy,” he said. “It is clear the need for additional power is in Arizona, and why they don’t see that is probably a political . . . matter.”

Bill Mundell, another member of the commission said shipping more Arizona-produced power to California will increase electricity prices for Arizonans, consume Arizona water and other resources for the benefit of California and have an impact on the reliability of electricity to Arizona.

The issue is more than theoretical. In May 2007 the commission rejected a request by Southern California Edison to build an additional high-voltage power line to Palm Springs from the Palo Verde area west of Phoenix, where a cluster of nuclear and natural gas-fired generators are located.

SCE officials said the line would allow excess power produced at those plants to be sold to California, producing income from Arizona.

But commissioners complained that the proposed line would pass through a wildlife refuge in western Arizona and that the excess power eventually will be needed for growing Arizona. They also said California utilities should build more generating plants in their own state.

But with the route now designated as a federal transmission corridor, SCE could appeal that decision to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Opponents can still appeal the corridor decision to the federal courts, and Mundell said he is willing to take the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“This is the major state’s rights issue of our time,” he said.