Examining how to connect the state to developing renewable power, the Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative (RETI) recently released a report that shows a potential new power transmission line running from the Oregon border through Shasta, Siskiyou and Tehama counties and south to Tracy.
"The likelihood of the line being built is unclear at this time," Percy Della, a spokesman for the state Energy Commission, said in an e-mail after conferring with agency officials. "Formal processes and procedures will determine the need for such a line, and if it should be permitted."
The potential line could run through Round Mountain, one of the many small communities in Northern California where opposition sprang up earlier this year to a different power line proposal. Proposed by the Transmission Agency of Northern California - a group of public utilities, including Redding and Sacramento - that 600-mile line would have run from Lassen County to Silicon Valley.
TANC scrapped the project late last month after the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), its largest partner, pulled out. The project also had encountered stiff opposition as the agency went through the process of environmental analysis.
Among those who spoke out against TANC, Randy Compton of Round Mountain said the people who opposed TANC will be ready to oppose other proposed projects.
"A power line is a power line and our community is buried in power lines already," Compton said.
The TANC opponents said large power transmission lines drop property values, pose health risks and are unnecessary because new power sources should be built closer to or within metropolitan areas.
But the RETI report - compiled by the Energy Commission, state Public Utilities Commission, and public-owned utilities - shows lines tapping into power sources far away from the state's population centers. The potential lines crossing through the north state would continue through Oregon and would link to solar- and wind-generated energy from as far away as Canada, Della said in his e-mail.
The lines on the RETI map represent the potential Canada-Pacific Northwest-Northern California Transmission Project being studied by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., Avista Utilities, British Columbia Transmission Corp. and PacifiCorp.
"This is in the very early stages," he said.
He said the study of a corridor 1,000 miles long and 40 miles wide between British Columbia and Tracy won't be completed until late this year.
Any construction wouldn't start until 2013, Lavey said. Long before that he said there would "robust public engagement" to aid in developing the route of the lines.
"There is no route determined," he said.
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