About the Author: Karen Pearlman
Karen Pearlman is a longtime San Diego journalist and associate editor at East County Magazine, where she covers local news, government, community issues and feature stories.
Karen Pearlman • August 13, 2026
County Supervisors to hear presentation on Golden Pacific Powerlink Aug. 18
Share
Comment by Aug. 18 on Golden Pacific Powerlink
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors is accepting online comments on the Golden Pacific Powerlink through Aug. 18.
Submit a comment here:
https://sdcounty.granicusideas.com/.../6a7a375d7d79655936
By Karen Pearlman, East County Magazine
Aug. 12, 2026 (San Diego County) – The San Diego County Board of Supervisors will open the floor up at its Aug. 18 meeting for a presentation from two environmental groups opposing San Diego Gas & Electric‘s proposed Golden Pacific Powerlink.
The Golden Pacific Powerlink is the planned 500-kilovolt transmission line with structures 150 to 200 feet tall that would cut through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and more than 100 miles of other terrain across San Diego and Riverside counties.
The $1.624 billion Golden Pacific Powerlink would be among the largest transmission lines in the utility’s system — meant to carry electricity about 135 to 145 miles from SDG&E’s Imperial Valley Substation to a new substation near the decommissioned San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, at the San Diego–Orange County line.
District 5 Supervisor Jim Desmond and District 2 Supervisor Joel Anderson placed the item on the agenda, which can be found here.
The proposed route runs almost entirely through Desmond’s district, which spans the desert and North County backcountry from Borrego Springs to Fallbrook, while Anderson’s area includes Julian, Ramona and other East County communities like Jacumba that have faced a wave of large-scale energy projects in recent years.
The presentation will be collaboratively given by the Anza-Borrego Foundation and the Chaparral Lands Conservancy, the two groups leading the opposition.
The meeting comes as SDG&E ramps up its own outreach, with in-person open houses scheduled for later this month and public comment on the project’s preliminary route open through early November.
It also comes as many locals say the region is being asked, once again, to absorb infrastructure that mostly benefits the rest of the state — a pattern residents and local officials point to in the debate over large-scale solar, wind and transmission projects that have been approved in rural pockets of the county.
A project primer
SDG&E says the project is needed to meet growing statewide demand.
The California Independent System Operator (CAISO), which runs the state’s grid, projects California will need to roughly double its current electricity capacity — about 160 gigawatts today — by 2045, partly to import power from Nevada and Arizona and keep the grid from being overloaded as demand grows.
CAISO’s Board of Governors approved the need for the line — formally called the Imperial Valley to North of SONGS 500 kV project — as part of its 2022-23 Transmission Plan in May, 2023. It was one of 45 transmission projects included in that plan, and the single largest and most expensive.
CAISO originally selected Horizon West Transmission to build, own and operate the line in May 2024; SDG&E took over the transmission-line portion of the project in August 2025, with Horizon West retaining the substation component near San Onofre.
A new line was needed rather than upgrading existing infrastructure, CAISO leaders have told reporters.
CAISO’s website says that the operator routinely evaluates alternatives like line reconductoring and upgrades. However, large-scale system modeling often shows that building new high-voltage infrastructure — such as a 500-kilovolt line — is the most cost-effective and reliable way to relieve major regional congestion and manage long-term load growth, the website shares.
The preliminary route runs from the Imperial Valley Substation north to State Route 78, then through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park along that corridor, before continuing on State Route 79 through Warner Springs, Lake Henshaw, Palomar Mountain, Pala, Pauma, Rincon and Valley Center, on toward Temecula, and finally to the new substation near the Orange County line.
SDG&E has released only a preliminary route corridor map, not detailed engineering plans, and says alternative routes are still being studied. Part of the corridor would cross private land that could require eminent domain acquisition.
The towers would stand about 15 to 20 stories high and be spaced every 1,500 feet, with a cleared right-of-way of up to 250 feet at each tower. (By comparison, the only line currently inside the park is a modest 69-kilovolt line on wooden poles, largely invisible against the landscape.)
CAISO’s transmission plan report projected that San Diego County ratepayers would cover about 9 percent of costs; SDG&E spokespersons have shared that the transmission-line-specific cost estimate is still being developed.
Anza-Borrego at the center of the fight
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is California’s largest state park, spanning more than 600,000 acres of desert, canyons and badlands in eastern San Diego County.
It is known for its dark skies allowing clear views of the stars at night, myriad hiking trails, and sensitive and endangered species habitat.
Those in opposition say a 500-kilovolt line through the park would fragment wildlife corridors, threaten protected species, raise wildfire risk and permanently alter scenic views in a protected landscape.
The Anza-Borrego Foundation, the park’s official nonprofit partner since 1967, and the Chaparral Lands Conservancy, founded in 2009 to protect shrubland ecosystems, have led the pushback and are expected to detail those concerns in their Aug. 18 presentation to the Board.
An earlier fight over the same ground
This isn’t the first time SDG&E has proposed running a 500-kilovolt line through Anza-Borrego. In 2006, the utility proposed the Sunrise Powerlink, whose original route would have run roughly 25 miles through the park’s wilderness.
That route was rejected. Following a multi-year state and federal environmental review, the California Public Utilities Commission ruled in December 2008 that every route option through Anza-Borrego was “environmentally unacceptable and infeasible,” citing 52 significant, unmitigable environmental impacts that would have required de-designating roughly 50 acres of state wilderness.
The commission instead approved a route that ran west from Imperial Valley and turned north after 36 miles, running parallel to Interstate 8 and an existing transmission corridor — bypassing the park entirely. That version of Sunrise Powerlink was built and went into service in 2012, at a cost of about $2 billion.
Opponents argue Golden Pacific’s preliminary route revives much of the corridor the CPUC rejected in 2008. The Anza-Borrego Foundation says the roughly 22 miles of the new preliminary route that cross the park closely track the same corridor the commission found infeasible 18 years ago, including the Grapevine Canyon area, the Tamarisk Grove area and the Angelina Spring Cultural Preserve.
SDG&E’s project manager, Gerard Ellison, has acknowledged the parallel, saying there were “lessons learned from Sunrise” regarding mitigation and the use of existing rights-of-way.
Asked directly why the new route again runs through the park, given the backlash that forced Sunrise’s reroute, SDG&E’s project director said the Imperial Valley starting point is different this time, and that the utility is weighing cost, community impact and environmental impact together.
Two alternate routes raise concerns over Palomar Mountain and Borrego Springs protections
Beyond the published tentative route, which skirts Palomar Mountain via Highway 79, SDG&E has disclosed it will submit two additional alternative routes to the CPUC for study: one cutting directly through the mountain, the other following Highway 76.
The Save Palomar Mountain Task Force contends that both alternatives carry serious wildfire and life-safety risk.
Some of the anxiety ahead of the Aug. 18 meeting is being driven by claims not yet confirmed by SDG&E.
In an Aug. 11 post to the Borrego Springs 92004 Facebook group, resident Maris Brancheau said SDG&E has floated a “Montezuma Grade alternative” that would run the line on large towers through both the state park and the town of Borrego Springs itself, rather than skirting the community as the original preliminary route does.
“This isn’t a viable alternative — this is a threat that if we don’t accept the line in the park, they will come thru the town, too,” Brancheau wrote, adding that a route bypassing the park and the town via Highway 86 to Interstate 10 has not been offered as an alternative.
(SDG&E’s published project materials do not currently show a route through the town of Borrego Springs.)
More energy zapped
The Golden Pacific fight is unfolding against a broader backdrop: several rural East County communities have spent the past several years absorbing large renewable energy and transmission projects tied to statewide climate goals — with mixed results for the people living closest to them.
In Jacumba Hot Springs, the county approved the 604-acre Jacumba Valley Ranch Energy Park solar and battery storage project after years of resident opposition. The Board of Supervisors ultimately required the developer to increase community benefit payments from $1.6 million to $4 million and expand buffer distances between homes and panels from 300 to 400 feet.
Residents said the project — expected to power roughly 57,000 homes for San Diego Community Power — would not directly supply their own electricity, while they would continue to experience SDG&E’s wildfire-related power shutoffs.
Neighbors later sued to block the project, arguing the county understated its long-term impacts; the solar farm was ultimately built and is now operational.
Nearby, in Boulevard, residents are fighting a proposed 588-acre solar and battery project called Starlight Solar, and a separate wind turbine project on the Campo Indian Reservation has drawn its own lawsuits from backcountry residents.
Community members from Campo, Jacumba, Boulevard and other communities have told reporters they feel they’re being asked to shoulder the visual, environmental and quality-of-life impact of the state’s clean-energy buildout while other communities get most of the benefit.
The pattern of large infrastructure built in rural, lower-income and often unincorporated East County communities to serve regional or statewide needs is the proverbial connector to Jacumba’s solar farm, Boulevard’s pending projects, and the Golden Pacific Powerlink’s proposed route.
The final say
SDG&E’s current map remains a proposal; the CPUC — not SDG&E — will ultimately determine the project’s route evaluate alternatives, and run the formal environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act.
SDG&E released its preliminary route corridor map in April of this year, and held virtual open houses on May 12 and 14 that drew hundreds of attendees.
Stakeholder feedback remains open through early November, ahead of a formal CPUC application SDG&E has said it expects to file in fall or winter 2026. That step would trigger a multi-year state and federal environmental review.
State and federal permitting is expected to run through 2029, with construction targeted to begin that year and the line slated to go into service in 2032.
Beyond the Aug. 18 Supervisors meeting, SDG&E will be holding a series of in-person open houses for residents along the proposed corridor, where project staff and subject-matter experts will be available at stations to answer questions and gather feedback through maps and surveys.
There is an open house set for 4 to 7 p.m., Aug. 25 at the Fallbrook Community Center; one 4 to 7 p.m., Aug. 26 at Temecula Embassy Suites; one 4 to 7 p.m., Oct. 13 at the El Centro Community Center; and one from 4 to 7 p.m., Oct. 14 at Borrego Springs Resort.
An online open house with the same project information will also be available starting Aug. 25 at goldenpacificpowerlink.com.
Residents can also submit comments directly to SDG&E at GoldenPacific@sdge.com. The Anza-Borrego Foundation offers a downloadable letter template on its website to help structure comments around route and environmental concerns. The group can also be reached by phone at (844) 765-6388.
SDG&E’s responses
SDG&E has said that placing Golden Pacific in a corridor geographically distinct from existing 500-kilovolt lines like Sunrise Powerlink would improve grid resiliency, since the broader grid could stay operational if one corridor has to be shut down for safety reasons. It also says Sunrise Powerlink hasn’t caused any major wildfires during operation, though several small construction-related fires occurred during its 2011 build phase. (Nationally, the Western Fire Chiefs Association has found electrical power networks caused about 19 percent of wildfires between 2016 and 2020.)
SDG&E says the project has been refined through community input, stakeholder engagement, preliminary engineering and field investigations, and that the upcoming open houses will let residents review the latest project information and the route alternatives identified for study under CEQA.
Some residents in Imperial Valley and San Diego’s backcountry have proposed that SDG&E and the CPUC instead consider expanding rooftop solar or upgrading existing transmission lines rather than building a new corridor through the park.
Congressional hopeful Desmond has been outspoken on the project. In mid-June, he issued a lengthy public statement, later published as an op-ed in East County Magazine, laying out his opposition.
“I am going to fight it,” Desmond wrote, calling the project “a Sacramento project” and arguing the CPUC is not required to listen to the county or to residents 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,” he wrote.
Desmond has also emphasized the cost to local ratepayers: a multi-billion project with San Diego County covering just under 10 percent of the cost, even though the power would largely serve other regions of the state.
His office says it plans to attend upcoming public meetings and file formal comments at each stage of the review process.
The Board of Supervisors meeting starts at 9 a.m., Aug. 18 at the County Administration Center, 1600 Pacific Highway in downtown San Diego. The meeting will be shown live on the county website.
Learn More About Borrego Springs
Borrego Springs Yacht Club Brings Model Sailboat Racing to Rams Hill Borrego Springs is home to an unusual desert pastime: model yacht racing. The Borrego Springs Yacht Club was founded in 2010 by Steve Luckman and Dennis Daoust. The club has grown to about 40 members and operates at a pond on the former nine-hole golf course at Rams Hill. Members race V32 sailboats, 32-inch non-motorized model boats controlled remotely through their sails and rudders. The boats were manufactured in California for decades but are no longer in production. Races typically draw 16 to 20 boats, with courses marked by duck decoys used as buoys. The racing season runs from November through May, although members can practice throughout the year. Six club events are held during the season, including Opening Day in November, the Pacific Cap in January, the Invitational in February, the Misplace Race in March, the Powder Puff in April and the Tequila Bowl in May. Winners receive trophies that are held until the next event. The club also maintains a palapa-style clubhouse and hillside seating overlooking the pond, providing space for members and spectators during race days. Membership was listed at $250 per year. The Borrego Springs Yacht Club offers a distinctive local version of sailing, combining competition, model boat craftsmanship and community activity in the desert. If you have any interest, contact Dennis Daoust at captain-havoc@earthlink.net .
The great free movies continue in October, with a French psychological thriller – Les Diaboliques, and Emma Stone in her Oscar winning performance – Poor Things. All screenings are held on Wednesday evenings at 7pm at the Borrego Springs Performing Arts Center, 590 Palm Canyon Drive, Borrego Springs, CA 92004 . Our full schedule for 2026 is posted on the BSFI website: www.borregospringsfilminstitute.org . Please check the website for the most up to date information. Here are the movies coming in October: Wednesday, October 7, 2026 at 7pm – Les Diaboliques – 1955 – Not Rated – 1h 47m Les Diaboliques , released in the United States simply as Diabolique , is a landmark of psychological suspense and one of the most influential thrillers in the history of cinema. A French psychological horror thriller co-written and directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, it stars Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, Paul Meurisse, and Charles Vanel, and is based on the 1952 novel Celle qui n'était plus by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. Set in a decrepit French boarding school for boys, the film follows the wife (Véra Clouzot) and mistress (Signoret) of a sadistic, irredeemably cruel headmaster (Meurisse), who conspire to murder him and disguise his death as an accidental drowning. When his body vanishes from the school swimming pool, however, and a ragtag detective (Vanel) begins poking around, the two women start experiencing chilling evidence that their tormentor may not be dead after all. Clouzot had optioned the rights to the source novel immediately after finishing The Wages of Fear (1953), reading it through the night and securing the rights the next morning — in doing so, narrowly preventing Alfred Hitchcock from acquiring them. Les Diaboliques went on to have an enormous influence on Hitchcock and directly inspired his horror-classic, Psycho (1960). The film premiered in Paris in January 1955, where it ran exclusively for seventeen weeks, and in the United States its press screening was held on Halloween 1955. Critically, the film was a sensation, earning the reputation that has followed it ever since: the Criterion Collection describes it as "a heart-grabbing benchmark in horror filmmaking," calling it "an almost perfect movie about a very nearly perfect murder," and the National Board of Review named it among the best foreign films of 1955, calling it "a genuine thriller — a shocking, satisfying chunk of Grand Guignol psychological suspense." The film earned Clouzot the enduring sobriquet of "the French Hitchcock," though many have argued, with considerable justification, that the comparison undersells him. In French with English subtitles. Wednesday, October 21, 2026 at 7pm – Poor Things – 2023 – Rated R – 2h 21m Poor Things is a wildly inventive, exhilaratingly strange, and visually ravishing work of absurdist cinema that stands as one of the defining films of recent years. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and written by Tony McNamara, based on the 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray, the film is an Ireland-UK-US co-production starring Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott, and Jerrod Carmichael. The story follows Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Dafoe), who, hungry for the worldliness she lacks, runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents, growing ever more steadfast in her determination to stand for equality and liberation. The film is a Frankenstein story refracted through feminist philosophy, dark comedy, and steampunk visual extravagance, moving from black-and-white to lush, outlandish color as Bella's consciousness expands. Poor Things premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival in September 2023, where it won the Golden Lion, and was released theatrically in the United States by Searchlight Pictures in December 2023. It became Lanthimos's highest-grossing film, earning over $117 million worldwide on a budget of $35 million. Critically it was celebrated with tremendous enthusiasm, where the consensus describes it as "wildly imaginative and exhilaratingly over the top — a bizarre, brilliant tour de force for director Yorgos Lanthimos and star Emma Stone." The film was named one of the top ten films of 2023 by both the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute. At the awards ceremonies, it swept the season: it won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy and Best Actress for Stone, five BAFTAs including Best Actress in a Leading Role, and at the 96th Academy Awards received eleven nominations — second only to Oppenheimer — winning four: Best Actress for Stone, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling. And looking forward, here are the scheduled movies coming in November and December: Wednesday, November 4, 2026 at 7pm – Babette’s Feast – 1987 – Rated G – 1h 42m Directed by Gabriel Axel and adapted from a short story by Isak Dinesen, the film tells the lovingly layered tale of a French housekeeper with a mysterious past who brings quiet revolution in the form of one exquisite meal to a circle of starkly pious villagers in late nineteenth-century Denmark. The title role of Babette is played by Stéphane Audran — with Birgitte Federspiel and Bodil Kjer as the two devout sisters into whose isolated lives Babette quietly, transformatively arrives. Babette’s Feast became the first Danish film ever to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Among its many admirers is Pope Francis, who named it his favorite film of all time. In French, Danish, and Swedish with English subtitles. Wednesday, November 18, 2026 at 7pm – The Daytrippers – 1997 – Rated R – 1h 27m Written and directed by Greg Mottola in his feature debut, the film follows the distraught Eliza (Hope Davis), who discovers a love letter written to her husband (Stanley Tucci) by an unknown woman and turns to her tight-knit Long Island family for help — sending the whole clan, including a strong-willed mom (Anne Meara), a taciturn dad (Pat McNamara), and a jaded sister (Parker Posey) with her pretentious boyfriend (Liev Schreiber) in tow, piling into a station wagon and heading into Manhattan to find out the truth. With its droll humor and bittersweet emotional heft, The Daytrippers announced the arrival of an unassumingly sharp-witted new talent on the 1990s indie film scene. Critics were largely enthusiastic: the Washington Post called it proof that "a great movie isn't a matter of dollars, so much as creativity," while Newsweek noted that "thanks to the superb cast and Mottola's deft touch, this modest-looking comedy proves quite memorable." Wednesday, December 2, 2026 at 7pm – Brief Encounter – 1945 – Not Rated – 1h 26m Directed by David Lean and adapted from Noël Coward's one-act play Still Life, the film stars Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard as two married strangers who fall into a fleeting, unconsummated love affair after a chance meeting at a railway station, told largely in flashback through Johnson's internal narration. Restrained, quietly devastating, and shot in stark black-and-white with Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto as its emotional backbone, Brief Encounter became a landmark of British cinema for its portrayal of repressed longing and moral duty. It was widely praised on release — earning the Grand Prix at the first Cannes Film Festival in 1946 and Academy Award nominations for Lean's direction, Johnson's performance, and the screenplay — and it continues to be regarded by critics as one of the finest British films ever made, frequently topping "greatest films" lists for its emotional precision and understatement. Wednesday, December 16, 2026 at 7pm – The Holdovers – 2023 – Rated R – 2h 13m Directed by Alexander Payne, the film is set at a New England boarding school over the 1970 Christmas break, where curmudgeonly ancient history teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) is stuck supervising the handful of students with nowhere else to go. As the group dwindles to just one, sharp-tongued troublemaker Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), Paul and the school's head cook, Mary Lamb (Da'Vine Joy Randolph), who is grieving the loss of her son, form an unlikely bond over their shared isolation. Written by David Hemingson, The Holdovers was a major critical success, earning five Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, with Randolph winning Best Supporting Actress. Critics praised its warmth, wit, and old-fashioned craftsmanship, with many calling it one of the finest films of the year and a worthy heir to the character-driven dramas of the era it evokes. Wednesday, December 30, 2026 at 7pm – The Thin Man – 1934 – Not Rated – 1h 33m Directed by W.S. Van Dyke, the film stars William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, a witty, hard-drinking former detective and his wealthy wife who are pulled back into sleuthing when an old acquaintance's inventor father goes missing amid a string of murders. Their affectionate, wisecracking rapport, as much as the mystery itself, became the heart of the film, setting the template for the screwball detective comedy. Based on Dashiell Hammett's novel of the same name, The Thin Man was a critical and commercial sensation on release, earning four Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Powell. It remains a landmark of 1930s Hollywood, celebrated for launching a beloved franchise and for Powell and Loy's chemistry, still considered one of the great screen partnerships in film history. This season’s BSFI movie screenings are being generously underwritten by the Borrego Valley Endowment Fund (BVEF). See you at the movies!
Sunset Dinner Specials at La Casa del Zorro
