A 145-mile, 500-kilovolt transmission line is being pushed through the heart of our community, and you need to know about it.
It is called the Golden Pacific Powerlink. Steel lattice towers up to 200 feet tall, the height of a 20-story building. A right-of-way hundreds of feet wide. An estimated cost of $2.3 billion, with San Diego County ratepayers on the hook for roughly 9 percent of the bill. A planned in-service date of 2032.
The preliminary route runs from the Imperial Valley Substation, cuts straight through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, and heads north along State Route 79 through Warner Springs, Lake Henshaw, Palomar Mountain, Pala, Pauma, Rincon, Valley Center, and up to Temecula connecting to a planned new substation north of the San Onofre power plant.
That is our backyard. That is our backcountry. That is our state park.
This is a Sacramento project. The California Independent System Operator approved it in 2023. The California Public Utilities Commission in Sacramento has the final say on the route. The CPUC is not required to listen to the County. It is not required to listen to the people of Borrego Springs, Valley Center, Pauma Valley, or Warner Springs. The communities that take the impact have no vote in the decision.
That is not how this should work.
Think about what is at stake.
Anza-Borrego is the largest state park in California. Almost 650,000 acres. Dark skies you can no longer find on the coast. Wildflower superblooms. Endangered species. Cultural sites tribal nations have protected for generations. Today there is one transmission line in the park, a small 69-kilovolt line on wooden poles built before the park existed. It would not be allowed under modern law. Now the state wants to drop 200-foot steel towers across that same wilderness.
In Valley Center, in Pauma, in Rincon, in Warner Springs, the towers would loom over family homes, ranches, vineyards, and tribal lands that have been here for generations. Property values take the hit. Views are gone. The character of these communities, the very reason people moved here, gets traded away for a power line passing through to somewhere else.
The shortest, cheapest path is the one that goes through us. Routing around Anza-Borrego, going north of Temecula, or putting segments underground would add hundreds of millions of dollars to the project, possibly more than a billion. Sacramento has decided our park and our communities are the cheaper option.
And here is the part that should make every Californian angry.
We import almost 30 percent of our electricity from out-of-state. We shut down San Onofre. We block new generation inside our own borders. Then we turn around and build 145-mile transmission lines to drag power across the desert from plants in Arizona and Nevada.
That is not an energy strategy. That is a policy failure 30 years in the making, and rural North County is being asked to pay for it.
If we generated power where people actually live, we would not have to scar a state park to keep the lights on.
I am going to fight this.
My office will be at every public meeting. We will file formal comments at every stage. We will push for any route that spares Anza-Borrego and protects the rural communities of District 5. And we will keep making noise about the simple idea that the people who live with these decisions deserve a real voice in making them.
Here is what is happening next. In-person open houses are coming later this year. The formal CPUC application is expected in the fall or winter of 2026. State and federal permitting runs through 2029. Construction begins in fall 2029. The line is scheduled to go live in 2032.
Public input matters most early. SDG&E is accepting stakeholder feedback through early November. You can email the project team here or learn more here. When the CPUC application is filed, my office will share exactly how to get your comments on the record where they count.
This is going to be a long fight. I need you in it with me.
If you have questions or want to share your perspective, reach my office at (619) 531-5555 or email Jim.Desmond@sdcounty.ca.gov.
Thank you for staying engaged.
San Diego County District 5 Supervisor Jim Desmond
https://www.supervisorjimdesmond.com/
San Diego County District 5 Supervisor Jim Desmond · 1600 Pacific Highway, #335, San Diego, CA 92101, United States
