Imperial Valley Press Online - News - Green Path project talks will wait

Thursday, July 09, 2009 - 3:26:56 pm

108°F

sunny - Winds: N at 7 mph, Humidity: 4%

See/Buy Photos

Font - Font +

Green Path project talks will wait
By DARREN SIMON, Staff Writer

Tuesday, March 27, 2007 11:10 PM PDT

The future of the Green Path projects now depend on an independent review as the Imperial Irrigation District has called off all negotiations until the findings of the review are released.

On Tuesday the IID board held a special meeting in which it planned to ask district General Manager Charles Hosken to cut off negotiation with all potential Green Path partners.

But Hosken told the board that last week he instructed his staff to do just that.

“I’ve already taken the action,” Hosken said.

He said negotiations will not begin again until after the findings of the independent review — called for by the board in November — are released April 24.

IID Director Mike Abatti said he was pleased Hosken had already taken action to stop Green Path talks, but he said he would have preferred the talks had stopped months earlier.

“I thought it had stopped when we voted to do the review,” said Abatti, who had been elected but had not yet taken his seat on the board when the review was first approved.

At the heart of the issue is the largest power project IID has proposed in recent history. Green Path actually consists of two projects.

Green Path Southwest, the more controversial project, calls for IID to build a massive power line in its service area that would connect with a similarly sized line San Diego Gas & Electric is proposing.

The lines would be large enough to carry power to hundreds of thousands of homes in San Diego while opening up new power resources to IID customers, district officials said.

Controversy has surrounded the Green Path Southwest project over questions like where the line will be located and what impact it will have on local farm land.

Another key question arises from the fact a third party, a nonprofit agency called Citizens Energy of Boston, will fund much of the IID line and operate the portion that connects with the San Diego line. The question relates to who would maintain ownership of that segment of the line into the future.

The less controversial project is called Green Path North and would involve IID partnering with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to move energy to the Los Angeles area.

But the complexity of that project coupled with the controversy over the Green Path Southwest led the IID board to seek the independent review of all contracts IID tied to the Green Path.

IID board President Stella Mendoza was the first to ask for the review.

She has said her goal was not to kill the project but she has raised concern with the level of information the IID board has received from staff on the project.

The review is being conducted by D&G Advisors LLC at a cost of $300,000.

As to what the review will show, IID officials said Tuesday they do not yet know whether the firm is going to raise questions with the Green Path contracts.

But they said at this point there is no point to move forward with contract talks until the firm does release its findings.

>> Staff Writer Darren Simon can be contacted at dsimon@ivpressonline.com or at 337-3445.

Print

See/Buy Photos

Font - Font +

Comments:

Log on

If you have an account already, just enter your Member ID and Password to access this page.

If you're new to our site, please create a new account.

*Member ID:
*Password:
Remember login? (requires cookies)
	Forgot Your Password?

Register FREE

To use certain features of ivpressonline.com, you must register FREE on the form provided. The Imperial Valley Press’ use of any personally identifying information you provide as part of registration is governed by the following privacy policy:

ivpressonline.com does not, and will not, release your personal information to any third party without your consent. We may, however, share some of the information we gather, in aggregate or demographic form, with advertisers and other partners. That is, we may provide general information about ways people use our site without identifying any particular individuals.

Do not use usernames or passwords from your financial accounts!

Note: Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required!

*Create a Member ID:
*Choose a password:
*Re-enter password:
*E-mail Address:
*Year of Birth:
	(children under 13 cannot register)
*First Name:
*Last Name:
Company:
Home Phone:
Business Phone:
Address:
*City:
State:
Zip Code:
*Current subscriber of the Imperial Valley Press?:
*May we communicate by email?:

The opinions above are from readers of ivpressonline.com and in no way represent the views of the Imperial Valley Press staff or Schurz Communications Inc.

ivpressonline.com encourages readers to offer their opinions on our local stories. We ask readers keep their comments on topic and avoid derogatory comments about fellow readers. Our goal is to promote a civil discussion about the news.

We will never edit or alter comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct. No comment may contain:

Potentially libelous statements.

Obscene, explicit or racist language.

Personal attacks, insults or threats

Commercial products or promotions

To report abuse, e-mail us at webmaster@ivpressonline.com

Get the Imperial Valley Press every morning at your home or office. Start a subscription for your family, for yourself or give it to someone special. Click here.

Text Message Alerts

Receive text message alerts on breaking news, latest updates, sports scores, offers and much more on your cellphone or PDA. Sign up here.

Register free and start receiving email alerts on breaking news, a sneak preview of upcoming stories, reminders and much more. Click here to begin.

About Us

Want to know more about the Imperial Valley Press? Want to contact us? Get general and contact information. Click here.

Quick Search

Air Conditioning

Autos and Vehicles

Construction and Materials

Employment Services

Financial Services

Food and Dining

Health and Medical

Hotels

Real Estate

Featured

Calendar of Events

Click here for events page.

Weekly Poll

Next Riddle


Related: adelantevalle.com \| valleywomenonline.com \| ivblogz.com \| ivfindit.com \| ivhomefinder.com \| ivworkplace.com


		Copyright © 2009 Imperial Valley Press - ivpressonline.com. All rights reserved.