Transmission line project stalls

The proposed towering transmission lines through the Mid-Valley region appear to be on hold, after the Sacramento Municipal Utility District announced plans to withdraw its support for the process.

With the district’s decision to withdraw, other agency members will re-evaluate the project, a spokesman for the Transmission Agency of Northern California said.

“Obviously, this is a major development, so some things will change,” said TANC   spokesman Brendan Wonnacott, based in Sacramento. “The bottom line is we believe this line is needed.”

TANC had three proposed routes for the transmission lines: one down the western side of the Sacramento Valley through parts of Colusa and Glenn counties, one that would have skirted the Sutter Buttes in Sutter County, and one through Yuba County east of Marysville. All three had segments in Tehama County.

Elisabeth Brinton, director of communications and community outreach for SMUD, said two main reasons are behind the agency’s decision to withdraw.

“We question the economic feasibility of being involved in the project right now,” she said, explaining SMUD had undertook its own study of the project over the last few months.

Brinton said SMUD officials were also concerned about changing regulations at the state and federal level involving transmission lines and their relation to renewable energy sources. The proposed lines would have carried renewable energy – as yet mostly undeveloped – generated in Lassen County or other out-of-state locations.

At public outreach meetings held by TANC in Williams and Marysville, several residents expressed concern the lines would affect their property values and interfere with practices on their land, such as crop dusting.

Some of those residents welcomed Thursday’s news about the lines, while criticizing how TANC had been proceeding thus far.

“Why they wanted to go across private land made no sense,” said Loren Clifton, who owns a 20-acre pomegranate farm on the cusp of the Sutter Buttes. Clifton said the transmission agency should’ve looked at using existing utility easements that parallel Interstate 5.

James Pearson, a Yuba County prune farmer who would’ve been affected by the eastern route, also said he was relieved.

“I’m obviously very pleased to hear this thing might not go through,” Pearson said, adding he was concerned for not only his own ranch but the effect on property values in nearby housing developments.

Wonnacott said upcoming outreach meetings in Redding, Orland and other locales this month have been postponed. However, the agency will still accept public comments on the scoping process through the end of the month, he said.

Wonnacott said the four remaining members of TANC will meet to discuss the next step, but it was too soon to say what they might decide or how soon they’ll decide it.

“This allows members to step back and determine what our best options are,” he said.

Brinton, of SMUD, said the projects and its routes could still be viable. SMUD had a 35 percent stake in the project, she said, so the remaining partners will have to decide whether to cover that stake themselves or find other partners.

The lines, which would have included 150-foot-tall towers and a wide right-of-way, would extend about 600 miles from Lassen County to power stations near Tracy. Officials didn’t expect a final decision on which route to use, if any, until 2011 or 2012.