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Transmission line foes get charged up at Redding rally

Redding Record-Searchlight|Scott Mobley|July 10, 2009
CaliforniaGeneral

The biggest backer of a proposed high-voltage power line through Northern California may have abandoned the project, putting its future in doubt, but the fight hasn't left power line opponents, who marched and rallied Wednesday in Redding. Nearly 200 green-shirted "Stop TANC" activists filled a Holiday Inn ballroom, where they heard reports from power line opponents who had traveled from as far as Davis.


REDDING - The biggest backer of a proposed high-voltage power line through Northern California may have abandoned the project, putting its future in doubt, but the fight hasn't left power line opponents, who marched and rallied Wednesday in Redding.

Nearly 200 green-shirted "Stop TANC" activists filled a Holiday Inn ballroom, where they heard reports from power line opponents who had traveled from as far as Davis.

The group later paraded from Redding Electric Utility offices at City Hall to the Cascade Theatre downtown, where Transmission Agency of Northern California officials were supposed to answer questions from the public about the transmission line.

TANC postponed the meeting after the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, …

... more [truncated due to possible copyright]

REDDING - The biggest backer of a proposed high-voltage power line through Northern California may have abandoned the project, putting its future in doubt, but the fight hasn't left power line opponents, who marched and rallied Wednesday in Redding.

Nearly 200 green-shirted "Stop TANC" activists filled a Holiday Inn ballroom, where they heard reports from power line opponents who had traveled from as far as Davis.

The group later paraded from Redding Electric Utility offices at City Hall to the Cascade Theatre downtown, where Transmission Agency of Northern California officials were supposed to answer questions from the public about the transmission line.

TANC postponed the meeting after the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, the power line's largest contributor, pulled out of the project last week. But TANC continues to plan for the power line with the Western Area Power Administration, a federal agency that markets hydroelectric power throughout the West.

Shasta County Supervisor Les Baugh, the only local elected official to take a strong stand against the power line, said at the rally that he's heard from hundreds of property owners who had planned to retire on their land, which they now fear is worthless with the prospect of a new transmission line coming through.

Baugh said he was disappointed TANC put off the meeting and that power line officials will not meet there with north state residents.

"Had they held that meeting and I had an opportunity to ask a question, I would have asked them, ‘How do you mitigate a life?'" Baugh said to loud applause.

Baugh said the TANC power line proposal has been misconceived and poorly planned from the start.

"They didn't have to do it this way," Baugh said. "They were not trying to co-locate these lines. That would have been a simple answer."

Lisa Goza, a Round Mountain power line opponent who helped organize Wednesday's protest, urged the crowd to attend the July 21 Redding City Council meeting. They hope to persuade city officials to follow the Sacramento utility district's lead and pull out of the project.

Goza said opposition won't stop until TANC pulls the proposed line off the Federal Register and halts the planning process.

"We want them to cancel this project, just like they canceled our meeting at the Cascade," Goza said.

Carol Overland, a Minnesota attorney who has litigated against proposed power plants and transmission lines in the Midwest and on the East Coast, told north state power line opponents to keep fighting even though SMUD pulled the plug on its share of the project.

"It's not over," Overland said. "You've got some breathing room now. When they are down, kick them, and kick them again. Don't let up. Being nice doesn't help. You've got to crank down and really kick these guys."

TANC, a consortium of municipal utilities that includes Redding, has proposed a pair of high-voltage lines running from Lassen County to Tracy with connections to existing Sacramento and Bay Area grids. The new transmission is needed to relieve congestion on maxed-out lines TANC members use to import hydropower from the Pacific Northwest, officials have said.

TANC also plans the line to tap wind, geothermal and solar power that may one day be developed in northeastern California and western Nevada. Utilities must get at least 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2010, under current legislation; in November, Gov. Schwarzenegger signed an executive order that raises that figure to 33 percent by 2020.

Comments accepted until July 30: The Transmission Agency of Northern California is accepting public comments until July 30 about its proposed north state power line project. Send comments to: David Young, Western Area Power Administration, 114 Parkshore Drive, Folsom, CA 95630; or to TTPEIS@wapa.gov


Source:http://www.orland-press-regis…

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