ACC rejects Calif. power line

Saying they don’t want Arizona to become an “energy farm” for California, the Arizona Corporation Commission unanimously rejected an application by Southern California Edison Wednesday to build a power line to supply Arizonagenerated power to its customers.

Commissioners said the $680 million power line would result in higher utility rates for Arizona consumers and damage the environment because it would cross the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge in western Arizona.

Most of the benefits would go to California consumers who would have access to cheaper power produced in Arizona while Arizona would bear the environmental impacts, they said.

“In my opinion, this application is a one-way street,” said commissioner Bill Mundell of Chandler.

After the meeting, a Southern California Edison official said the utility has not decided if it will appeal the decision to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or the courts.

“We’re disappointed,” said Tom Burhemm, manager of regulatory operations. “We believe there are a lot of benefits to the entire region.”

He said the utility will study other options, including building more in-state generating plants and increasing energyefficiency programs.

Southern California Edison had been working for more than two years to win approval for the 231-mile high-voltage line, which would run from a switch yard near the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station west of Phoenix to the Devers substation near Palm Springs, Calif.

The proposed line would have transported power generated by natural gas-fired plants built in the past few years near the Palo Verde complex.

Those plants have excess generating capacity available, and the electricity could be exported to California during periods of non-peak demand in Arizona.

But the Arizona commissioners said Arizona electric consumers would have to pay an additional $242 million in higher electric rates over the life of the line because it would drive up wholesale market prices at the Palo Verde hub.

Also they said the demand from California for Arizonaproduced power would require Arizona to build additional generating plants to meet in-state demand sooner than would otherwise be the case.

Mundell complained that California could do more to meet its own energy needs.

He cited the decision announced two weeks ago by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to prohibit the construction of an off-shore liquified natural gas terminal.

Although California has been allowing more power plants to be built in the past few years to meet increased electricity demand, that has been offset by the retiring of older power plants, Mundell said.

Southern California Edison officials said Arizona would gain many benefits from the power line, including improving the state’s access to renewable energy produced in California and elsewhere, increasing its tax revenue and enhancing the entire state’s investment climate.

They said there would be a general benefit by increasing the interconnections in the nation’s western power grid.

Finally, they said the proposed route had been determined to have the fewest environmental impacts, even though 24 miles would go through the Kofa refuge.

The line would follow the route of an existing high-power line built in the early 1980s that moves electricity from Palo Verde to California. Dian Grueneich, a member of the California Public Utilities Commission, which approved the California portion of the Palo Verde-Devers line in January, defended her state’s energy policies. She said the Golden State has been doing a better job of providing for its own energy needs following the power crisis of 2000.

“There is a perception that we want to export pollution rather than producing our own power,” she said. “But we get 80 percent of our power from in-state generation.”