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FAA Halts Electrical Tower Project
Katy Grimes: The residents of Chino Hills are cheering in the streets today. On Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration put an immediate halt to the Southern California Edison transmission tower construction project because SCE is violating FAA regulations.
The letter, sent from the California Public Utility Commission to SCE “intended to guide SCE’s efforts to attain and maintain compliance with FAA regulations,” states, “SCE should not perform any new or additional tower construction and conductor stringing in areas that have a high probability of being subject to FAA mitigations. To that end, conductor stringing in the City of Chino Hills within 1000 feet of any residences should not be undertaken.” Residents of Chino Hills have been in the fight of their lives against Southern California Edison and the CPUC for ramrodding a transmission tower project through the planning phase, despite the massive public outcry. “The Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project has had many of the 76,000 Chino Hills residents up in arms, but they are now left feeling impotent against one of the largest power providers in the state. Residents are watching helplessly as the installation of new massive electricity towers — 200 feet tall and 60 feet wide — are erected quickly, as close as 40 feet from some residents’ backyards,” I wrote in Green Power Project Jolts Citizens in July. The Tehachapi project is under construction in response to the California Renewable Portfolio Standard, which was mandated by the Legislature and signed into law on April 12, 2011 by Gov. Jerry Brown. Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, authored SB 2, which mandates the increase of California’s Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) to 33 percent by 2020. The mandate requires regulated sellers of electricity to procure 33 percent of their total energy supplies from certified renewable resources.
As for the FAA’s involvement, SCE was required to analyze FAA regulations addressing navigable airspace and file the appropriate requests and reports with the aviation regulator in order to get proper permission to erect the monster towers. “The FAA has responded to some of these requests,” the letter states. But apparently SCE has not received final approval from the FAA, but went ahead and built the towers anyway. The beef with Chino Hills residents is that the monster towers are going up close to homes. Residents have moved from frustration to anger are their concerns about the monster towers being erected so close to homes have been summarily dismissed. The electricity towers are 200 feet tall and 60 feet wide and have been erected with surprising speed, according to many Chino Hills residents. Residents said they have only been asking for an alternative route and more time to develop a better and safer plan. Given that the city of Chino hills spent $2.4 million on experts, lawyers and specialty engineers to fight SCE to develop an alternate route through the Chino Hills State Park — approved by environmentalists and other agencies — they felt would get attention from the CPUC.
But the CPUC and SCE dismissed the city and its residents, and began construction of the towers, evidently forgetting about the lighting and marking equipment needed for the 200 foot towers. Help has come in an unusual form with the FAA has stepping in. But Chino Hills residents say they’ll take help wherever they can. And they insist that they are not done fighting SCE. OCT. 21, 2011 UPDATE: I received an email from Chino Hills residents with a photo attached showing that SCE is still working on at least one of the towers. Residents sent the photo to the CPUC.
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May 23, 2012
Katy…you are SO VERY MUCH appreciated!! Thank you for keeping those in the political arena informed. We are HOPEFUL others will begin to recognize the true issue here…FEDERAL STIMULUS MONEY & GREED energy projects run amuck! SCE is moving quickly in order to get funding while the money is available. We know what’s going on & finally CPUC is stepping up and doing what they were designed to do: PROTECT THE CONSUMER!!
Keep it going Katy. You are AWESOME!!
Katy, Thank you so much for not just this article but all the ones you’ve written profiling our fight. You have kept our name out there and helped us to achieve the momentum we have today. Chino Hills will not be the collateral damage of green energy. We’re not going to take it and we’re not going to quit.
Thank you once again for keeping the public updated on our situation. You are helping us make a difference!
Thanks for the update and for being instrumental on our fight against this injustice to Chino Hills. We really appreciate very much!
Thank you for writing about it. Our fight is not over, we will win this nightmare!
Sometimes Katy we feel as if no one is listening to us. We can ALWAYS count on YOU! Thanks for always being there for us! You’ll be the first person we invite to our “victory” party when they have to re-route these MONSTERS!!!!
SCE’s presumptuousness in recklessly pushing forward without proper approval demonstrates their confidence that they will get their way. They are part of a MEAN GREEN MACHINE that has steam rolled the City’s earnest efforts to resolve this issue in a fair and moral way. Besides the Commissioner, Michael Peevey being a long-time SCE exec before being appointed to the CPUC, it appears that Les Stark, SCE Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs helped the CPUC Project manager for the TRTP, Tom Flynn, slide into a position at SCE just months before the CPUC decision was finalized in 2009. The CPUC casually went along with SCE’s self-serving scheme without any serious assessment of the alternative options presented by the concerned citizens who are severely impacted by this project. The CPUC decision needs to be scrutinized by a objective third party to ensure the citizen’s rights are not violated any further.
Thanks for being an advocate for Chino Hills in this unfair battle against ratepayer-funded SCE. We will not give up in our fight for what is RIGHT and FAIR!
Dear Ms. Grimes,
Thank you for this article and your support for our battle in Chino Hills. You can’t fathom how much this means to us all.
Sincerely,
Dana Lamb
Katy,
Thank you for keeping our fight alive! You’re the best!
Sincerely,
Debbie Dean
Thank you so very much Katy…..you don’t know what it means when someone actually hears us. To-date, our pleas for help have fallen on deaf ears of a majority of the elected officials. We are living day and night in fear of what the EMF Radiation will do once these towers go LIVE! There are 4 houses near me, up for sale, just within walking distance of each other. No one even wants to look at them:(:( One has been on the market for the past 220 days!! Who, in their right mind would want to live under a killer tower. Appreciate all your support.
Katy,
We THANK YOU from the depths of our hearts for your honest reporting on the TRTP corruption!!! We appreciate your tenaciousness in not letting these callous and money hungry SCE executives off the hook! The outrageous greed behind the so-called “green energy” industry is so obvious…SCE is racing to to the finish line in order to receive millions and millions of federal stimulus money before the deadline. Make no mistake about it…this is ALL about GREED, TRTP has nothing about doing good for the planet or people (btw, the RPS of 33% renewable energy by 2020 is a laughing joke, CA leaders have their head stuck in the mud and no idea what they’re doing when they set that arbitrary goal). It so appalling that for the love of $$$, SCE is willing to destroy an entire community, and put thousands of lives in harms way. How do these people sleep at night?! How can they face themselves in the mirror?! They have sold their souls to $$$$, and thanks to people like you, Katy, we will not let them off the hook! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Thank you Katy for your outmost support to the residents of Chino Hills. SCE need to be exposed of what they are doing to our city and other communities are wrong. They need to be stop now!!! Again, thank you very much!!
Katy, thank you so much for speaking the truth. You are an inspiration to us to keep fighting and expose the truth. We will not give up, we will fight as long as we need to. You are the best!
I’ve lived in chino hills and the resident’s there think that they live in 90210 . Chino Hills is not an exclusive city . Chino Hills is just a suburban los angeles neighborhood .
First of all, Chino Hills is in San Bernardino county, not L.A. If you lived here, I’m sure you would have figured that out when you got your property tax bill.
As a resident, I don’t think any resident thinks we live in an exclusive city. We live in a city that doesn’t want 198′ foot towers in easements that are only 75′ away from our homes. We want Southern California Edison to follow their own guidelines and keep the towers over 300′ from our homes.
We live in a city where we want to protect our children from the health effects of the lines once they are activated. We want our aged parents with pacemakers be able to come visit and not have to worry about the electic magnetic field from the towers. We want to make sure this doesn’t happen to any other citizens in other cities throughout the nation.
We want to protect the schools, churches, senior homes, day care centers, as well as our homes that are next to these towers.
The only exclusive thing about our city, are the citizens that want to protect the health and safety of their community. I happen to be proud that I live in 91709 and I, as well as thousands of others, will continue to fight to have these towers moved to the alternate route that was approved by the Sierra Club as well as many other agencies, at a lower cost to the customers of Edison.