I want every resident of District 5 to hear about this now, before the decisions get made without us.
It is called the Golden Pacific Powerlink. A 145-mile, 500-kilovolt transmission line that Sacramento wants to run from the Imperial Valley, through Anza-Borrego, and up through Valley Center, Pauma, Rincon, and Warner Springs before connecting near the old San Onofre site.
We are talking about steel lattice towers up to 200 feet tall. That is the height of a 20-story building. A right-of-way hundreds of feet wide. A $2.3 billion price tag, with San Diego County ratepayers covering about 9 percent of it.
The route runs straight through our backcountry. And the communities that take the hit get no vote on the decision.
That is not how this should work. I am going to fight it. Stay with me on this one.