New Media Rights offering paid filmmaking opportunity for San Diego filmmakers

Underground transmission lines are extremely costly, and that means higher costs to the public. It is public interest that the politians have this in mind. The lines themselves are protected from many natural or accidental events that can take overhead lines out of service. However, this increased reliability is typically offset by a longer repair period. Being typically three to five feet below ground, a near distance to anyone passing above them, and MF can be quite high directly over the line. MF on either side of an underground line, however, decrease more rapidly with increased distance than the MF from an overhead line.

Amazing one, i appreciate this work....

wartsila | wartsila | wartsila | wartsila

Why is Sempra/SDGE going after the Sunrise powerlink when they have still not complied with their promise to underground powerlines here in town? Let's film that?  Ala Michael Moores.

http://legacy.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20071111-9999-1n11lines.html

The 2001 “Power Line Fire Prevention Field Guide” lists the minimum steps utilities should take when guarding against fires. It also advises utilities that additional precautions are recommended and often appropriate.

But according to lawyers who have battled the companies in court, the legal standards aren't always met.

“As a general matter, the primary focus in corporate decision-making is on the goal of generating profits, not on environmental or social responsibility,” said Jenny Ross, a former prosecutor who won a landmark criminal case against Pacific Gas and Electric after the 1994 Trauner fire in Nevada County.

Ignited when a high-voltage wire touched an untrimmed tree, the Trauner fire destroyed a 19th-century schoolhouse and 12 homes in the Gold Rush town of Rough and Ready.

During her investigation, Ross discovered that PG&E had diverted $80 million of vegetation-management funds into profits – even though the company knew of the resulting fire danger.

PG&E was convicted on 739 counts of criminal negligence and fined nearly $30 million by state regulators.

SDG&E settled a vegetation-clearance case in 1996 when the company paid $770,000 to resolve a civil suit in the wake of the Guejito fire east of Escondido. That fire also started when a power line ignited a tree. It burned 18 homes and 20,000 acres.

In that case, the state alleged that work crews arrived soon after the fire had passed and began to chop down overgrown trees and limbs. Butler, the Rice Canyon Road resident, made the same allegation last week.

Guidelines for brush clearance are generally established by states and municipalities. In some cases, utilities set their own standards.

In Ada, Okla., where high winds and ice are recurring threats, the People's Electric Cooperative clears 20-foot corridors for its distribution lines.

And whenever the 14,000-member cooperative installs new poles, they're made of metal and built closer together to reduce “galloping,” or mechanical vibrations, in the lines during heavy winds, co-op vice president Monica Cowart said.

This year's wildfires already are prompting new scrutiny of the rules and policies regarding electricity transmission and distribution.

Robert Mitchell, chief executive of Trans-Elect LLC, a Maryland-based builder of high-voltage power lines, predicts regulators will take a closer look at requiring more wires to be buried.

“Even though the underground transmission lines might cost two or three times as much, the transmission amount is a very small portion of the electric bill,” he said.

One consumer advocate is also using the recent fires to boost his case against the Sunrise application, which is expected to be approved or rejected by state utility regulators next year.

In a motion filed Thursday, Michael Shames of the Utility Consumers' Action Network urged the utilities commission to compel SDG&E to testify about the recent wildfires during the next phase of the process.