Power line foes charge ahead

Northern California residents say they are in the fight of their life.

The Transmission Agency of Northern California’s proposal to build more than 600 miles of high-voltage transmission lines has residents fearing the worst: reduced property values, high power rates, interference with agriculture operations and negative impacts to the environment and public safety.

“These are all things that cannot be mitigated away,” Shasta County resident Steve Kerns said at a community meeting in Maxwell on Wednesday. “If we went into Willows and started ransacking homes and destroying people’s lives, they would take us out and hang us. But that is what (TANC) is doing to us.”

Wednesday’s meeting was organized by Colusa County resident Marion Mathis and the newly formed North State Land Owners Committee, which oppose TANC’s plans to build new transmission lines from Lassen County to Sacramento. The $1.5 billion project would carry up to 4,000 megawatts of renewable energy, officials have said.

Kerns, a biologist, said the project should not be allowed without reliable sources of power first being identified. Some Mid-Valley residents fear the agency plans to purchase cheap power in British Columbia to market to customers in the Bay Area.

“There’s nothing there (in Lassen County) that can possibly produce 4,000 megawatts of power,” Kerns said. 

In fact, a January report by the Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative – a collaborative planning process by utility companies and state regulators – identified more than 2,700 megawatts of potential power generation at multiple sites in Lassen County. But the same report found transmission costs made developing most of those projects cost-prohibitive.

“...Northern California resources tend to be located in isolated areas way from the bulk transmission system, and the cost to interconnect these resources to the grid contributes to the poor economics,” the report states.

Attempts to contact TANC officials were unsuccessful by press time. But one of TANC’s member agencies, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, recently took issue with the RETI report, saying it underestimated available wind power in Lassen and didn’t address factors like increased reliability and access to out-of-state power.

Even so, political leaders have joined residents in raising questions about the project. Supervisors in Shasta, Glenn and Colusa counties have expressed concern, as have Assemblyman Jim Nielsen and state Sen. Sam Aanestad.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Cottonwood resident Todd Papesh said he intends to fight the project, which would run directly through his five-acre ranchette.

“I bought my property four years ago at the boom,” Papesh said. “What Wall Street hasn’t taken way from me in property value, TANC will.”

About 65 people from Colusa and Glenn County attended the meeting Wednesday. Although Shasta County residents have spearheaded public protest, local opposition to the project has mounted in the past week.

“Every now and then something comes along to threaten our way of life,” Mathis said. “We have to fight.”

Contact Susan Meeker at 458-2121 or smeeker@tcnpress.com. Managing Editor Michael S. Green contributed to this report.

IMPORTANT DATES

July 8
Public rally: 2-4 p.m. Holiday Inn, 1900 Hilltop Drive, Redding
Anti-TANC walk/demonstration: 4:30-5:30 p.m., Redding City Hall, 777 Cypress Ave., Redding
TANC public meeting: 6:30 p.m. Cascade Theatre, 1731 Market St., Redding.
July 9
TANC public meeting, 6:30 p.m. Orland Memorial Hall, 320 Third St., Orland.
July 16
TANC public meeting, 6:30 p.m., Red Bluff Community Center, 500 S Jackson St., Red Bluff.