TANC sends a mixed message

OK, how's this for mixed messages?

The Transmission Authority of Northern California, even though the largest single investor has unplugged from the proposed new power lines, says it will continue its planning.

"Allowing the scoping process to proceed will help determine where to put the transmission lines needed to ensure reliable and affordable electric service for the residents and businesses throughout Northern California and to expand access to clean energy sources," TANC spokesman Brendan Wonnacot said after word got out that the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, which would have owned a little over a third of the lines, had dropped out.

At the same time, TANC is continuing the "scoping," however, it has postponed planned meetings around Northern California this month, including one Wednesday evening at Redding's Cascade Theatre.

In other words, the organizers want to continue to hear from the public - but they've canceled their meetings with that same public.

It's likely that Sacramento's withdrawal - especially since the utility decided that the project simply didn't justify continued expense - will kill the TANC project in its current form. Redding Electric Utility Director Paul Hauser, who sits on TANC's board and supported the power lines, says it would be impossible to move forward unless another utility picks up Sacramento's share.

In fairness, TANC might need time to sort through the wreckage. It would waste everybody's time to bring hundreds of people to a meeting about a power line that won't be built.

But if the scoping and planning continue, so must the public involvement.

Even if TANC were trying to dodge the public, it couldn't.

One of the most astonishing twists in the tale is how quickly the grass-roots opposition mobilized.

It's been just three months since most Northern Californians outside the guild of utility engineers have even heard of the project, and in that brief time, a coalition of property owners from Round Mountain to Davis gelled. They included a mix of off-the-grid environmental activists and cross- and cowboy hat-wearing conservatives.

They set up multiple Web sites to gather and share information. They scoured the engineering studies that guide state electrical-transmission policy. They connected with each other across county lines. And they short-circuited the project. It's quite a feat.

And the north state will need to keep an eye on the power grid. There is near-universal agreement that meeting the state's goals for reducing fossil fuels will require major new lines between California's cities and the places where the wind blows strongest and the sun shines steadiest. Is this power line the right project? No, but it won't be the last attempt.

Indeed, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is independently planning its own major new line, running from California to Canada. While no route has been made public, it's expected to cross Shasta County north to south. And that corporation is likely to approach the task with more determination than TANC, a coalition of municipal utilities ultimately accountable to voters and thus more sensitive to public backlash.

We might need new lines, but they need to built in the right way, in the right place, with the least impact to residents and our natural environment.

And to ensure that happens, the network that fought TANC will need to stay connected.