News

Construction of the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project Through the City of Chino Hills Halted While the CPUC Reconsiders the Route

On November 10, 2011, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued an order granting the Motion of the City of Chino Hills for a partial stay of the massive Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project (TRTP) for the portion of the line that is being constructed within the City of Chino Hills. On the same day, CPUC President Michael Peevey issued an Assigned Commissioner’s Ruling directing Southern California Edison (SCE), the TRTP project sponsor, to provide additional testimony to consider alternatives to the existing TRTP route through Chino Hills, and to serve such testimony on January 10, 2012.

Throughout 2008 and 2009, Goodin MacBride partner Michael Day represented the City of Chino Hills and advocated an alternative route to the proposed SCE project, which would install 200-foot tall transmission towers in a narrow 150-foot right of way directly through a densely populated residential community in Chino Hills. The litigation was noteworthy for the extensive case and detailed expert testimony offered by Chino Hills to support the feasibility of alternative routes. While the CPUC decision issued in December 2009 approved the project as proposed by SCE, when the transmission towers were actually installed, their enormous size galvanized public reaction and the City petitioned the CPUC to reverse or modify its previous decision.
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