California ISO board disbanded; power line foes wait

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Saturday, January 20, 2001 ISO board disbanded; power line foes wait SDGE's plan to run wires through southwest Riverside County was on the agenda of a now-canceled meeting.

By Sandy Stokes The Press-Enterprise

Southwestern Riverside County residents had already booked flights to Folsom for a meeting of an agency board the governor disbanded with a pen stroke Thursday night.

Late Friday, the California Independent System Operator canceled the meeting of its governing board scheduled for next week.

Loma Bosinger, a Temecula area resident and a member of an activist group planning to attend that meeting, said her airline ticket is nonrefundable. The board was scheduled to discuss San Diego Gas & Electric's plan to build power lines from Romoland through southwestern Riverside County to Rainbow in northern San Diego County.

"But I'll just hang onto it because I know I'll end up going eventually," she said.

Gov. Davis signed a bill Thursday that replaced the 26-member California Independent System Operator board, made up mostly of people with vested interests in the electricity industry. In a written statement, Davis said he would replace the board with "advocates for the consumers, not the energy companies."

The ISO oversees the flow of electricity in the state and is the agency that ordered the rolling blackouts this week when supplies were tight.

By Friday, Davis had named four people to the new five-member panel. The appointees are Michael Kahn, chairman of the Electricity Oversight Board, a state panel created to oversee the California Power Exchange and the ISO; state Secretary of Business, Transportation and Housing Maria Contreras-Sweet; Carl Guardino of the Silicon Valley Manufacturers Group; and Michael Florio of The Utility Reform Network consumer advocacy group and a member of the original board.

A spokeswoman in the governor's office said the fifth appointment will be made by early next week.

On Jan. 25, the original ISO board would have had the controversial SDGE high-voltage line on its meeting agenda.

Now, the original board has only an executive session planned, to consider "legal advice regarding governance and transition issues," according to its new agenda.

Temecula resident Karen Johanson still plans to attend that meeting. She represents consumers for the League of Women Voters on the original 26-member ISO board.

Bosinger and other members of Save Southwest Riverside County, a grass-roots group fighting SDGE's plan to run a 500,000-volt transmission line through the Temecula Valley, had also planned to travel to Folsom for the meeting.

After public outcry from area residents, the original ISO board rescinded its actions sanctioning SDGE's Valley-Rainbow Interconnect to serve the utility's San Diego County customers.

Next week, the original board was to have heard an update from the ISO staff on its directive to solicit bids for alternatives to SDGE's proposed high-voltage line through Riverside County.

"We're going to have to approach the new ISO board and ask they hold to the course of the old board," said Save Southwest Riverside County co-chairwoman Barbara Wilder. "The promises made should be honored."

The board reorganization came as no surprise to Johanson, who said the original board was "obviously aware this situation might ensue."

On Dec. 15, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered that the original ISO board be disbanded and replaced with people not tied to the electric industry, a move Johanson endorses. The federal order said the board must turn over decision-making power and operating control to the ISO's management on Jan. 29. The order also gave the existing board advisory committee status until April 27 or until a new board is seated.

"I personally hope there will be a compromise between FERC and the state," Johanson said.

http://www.inlandempireonline.com/news/stories/012001/iso20.shtml

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 20, 2001


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