Tag: Sempra Energy

CPUC Decision Postponed to January 10 – Have you sent your letter yet?

The California Public Utitlies Commission (CPUC) vote on the SDG&E application for Quail Brush and two other gas plants in San Diego County has been rescheduled to January 10. This gives us time to get more Letters to the CPUC supporting their proposed decision rejecting these fossil fuel plants as not needed!

Have you emailed the CPUC? The more people who voice support of the CPUC draft decision, the better. You can count on Cogentrix and the other corporate lobbyists to be pushing for their profits. The Sierra Club will forward your voice! OR should you prefer to speak via Save Mission Trails, here is our letter and instructions.

Additionally, we are pleased to report that newly-elected State Senator Marty Block and San Diego Councilmember Scott Sherman have written letters to the CPUC in support of the draft ruling, which rejects the SDG&E power purchase agreement for these plants. Click to read Sherman’s letter.

Thank you all, for caring about the future of San Diego and our lovely Mission Trails Regional Park!

Does Jane Dumas Know Cogentrix is Trying to Ruin Mission Trails?

Jane Dumas is a respected Kumeyaay elder who was honored on April 28th by having a day named after her at Mission Trails Regional Park.  Kumeyaay is Jane’s first language and she remains one of the last living fluent speakers of the Kumeyaay language in the world.  And she has spent the last 60 years of her life educating people about Kumeyaay history and culture.

After I came across this heart-warming story about Jane Dumas Day, and learned about all she has done in support of Mission Trails Regional Park, I wondered if she had been apprised of the fact that Cogentrix and Sempra Energy are trying to ruin Mission Trails by placing their unsightly, noisy power plant right next to the Equestrian Center, just north of Kumeyaay Lake.

What I have appreciated about various tribes, after having studied their history for the last 45 years of my life, and contributing to various American Indian charities, is that their spirituality is rooted in Nature.  Does anyone remember the commercial featuring an Indian man weeping at the sight of pollution in the river?  I am afraid that Jane Dumas will have a reaction very similar to that, when someone informs her of what is happening now, just a few months after the day she was honored at her beloved park.

“. . . WHEREAS, Jane Dumas was inducted into the San Diego County Women’s Hall of Fame in 2002 and is recognized as the catalyst for Mission Trails Regional Park acquiring a Kumeyaay-Diegueño Nation flag to fly proudly at the Kumeyaay Lake and Campground in her honor from here on out; AND

WHEREAS, Jane continues to share her expertise in medicinal plants by teaching Ethnobotany classes at Sycuan’s Kumeyaay Community College.  It is her hope that the knowledge and traditions of her people will continue to be passed down from generation to generation and never be forgotten; NOW THEREFORE. . . “

. . . Jane Dumas we need you to stand with us now as we struggle to save Mission Trails Regional Park.

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Kids Love Mission Trails

A lot of curious children (and their parents) showed up to visit Mission Trails Regional Park on “Explore Mission Trails Day” this past weekend.

Looking to the future, this little girl happily signed the Children’s Petition to Stop the Quail Brush Power Plant and “Save Mission Trails.”

Hikers set out on a little hike.  The power plant would be visible if they turned to the right, on the other side of  Highway 52.

Kids of all ages had a chance to meet some of the critters that live in Mission Trails, like this barn owl.

Mission Trails is beloved by children, and the child in all of us.  Let’s keep it that way!

If you oppose the construction of the Quail Brush Power Plant right next to Mission Trails, send your note of opposition today to:

Send your note of opposition today RE: 11-AFC-03, Quail Brush Power Plant, City of San Diego Project #270282 to:

planningcommission@sandiego.gov

CEC Project Manager
Eric Solorio    ESolorio@energy.state.ca.us

CEC Commissioners:
Karen Douglas   <kldougla@energy.ca.gov>
Carla Peterman  <cpeterma@energy.ca.gov>

Mayor Jerry Sanders     JerrySanders@sandiego.gov

SD City Council
Anthony Young <anthonyyoung@sandiego.gov>
Carl DeMaio <CarlDeMaio@sandiego.gov>
David Alvarez <davidalvarez@sandiego.gov>
Kevin Faulconer <kevinfaulconer@sandiego.gov>
Lori Zapf <loriezapf@sandiego.gov>
Marti Emerald <martiemerald@sandiego.gov>
Sherri Lightner <SherriLightner@sandiego.gov>
Todd Gloria <toddgloria@SANDIEGO.GOV>

 

Ducks Unanimously Oppose Power Plant at Their Home

Yep, it’s official.  The ducks inhabiting Mission Trails Regional Park have weighed in on the matter of the Quail Brush power plant, and they think the idea is WHACK!

The Foxes are in the Hen House

How disillusioning to notice on the latest flyer for the 10th Annual “Explore Mission Trails Day” coming up on May 19th, that Quail Brush Genco, LLC is listed as a “Community Sponsor.”

Really????!!!!!

Dictionary.com defines the word “community” as:

1. a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a commoncultural and historical heritage.

2. a locality inhabited by such a group.
The Santee City Council which represents the community living directly downwind of the proposed Quail Brush power plant has already made it plain that they are opposed to the construction of the power plant (in any way, shape or form) by voting unanimously against it, and installing banners opposing  it that can be seen WITHIN THE COMMUNITY.
I’m sure this bribery of the Mission Trails board is only the beginning of the dirty tricks that Sempra and Cogentrix will be pulling out of their greasy bag during the 60-day continuance that has been granted them to make this power plant idea more palatable to the community.
Don’t they get it?  There is no price they can pay for the “church” where many of us go to “worship” Nature.
That is why we must now redouble our efforts.  Don’t just sit back after signing a petition at StopTheSanteePowerPlant.  Show up en masse to these Planning Commission meetings.  Bring your family.  They have shown that they are digging their heels in and our beloved Mission Trails are under siege by monopoly Sempra Energy and North Carolina carpetbagger Cogentrix which appears to have some very large coffers.  They have started to sprinkle dollar bills on community groups believing that their money will muffle any opposition.

Cowles Mountain, San Diego Jewel

Hikers pause at the top of Cowles Mountain for a 360-degree view of San Diego.  From up here, you will be able to see the proposed Quail Brush power plant squatting just outside of Mission Trails Regional Park to the west.  Who wants to spend 45 minutes climbing up a steep mountain trail only to look down and see a power plant the size of a football field with eleven spewing smoke stacks??????  What kind of a legacy is this for our children and grandchildren??????  A power plant right next to a city park.  What can they possibly be thinking?  (They’re not thinking.)

Why Save Mission Trails? – by Patty Mooney

I admit it.  Mission Trails Regional Park is my backyard, and I do not want to see, hear or smell a power plant anywhere near this, the largest urban park in the USA.  Yet that is exactly what Sempra Energy and Cogentrix want to do.  They want to stick a grotesque conglomeration with 11 100-foot smokestacks and dozens of electrical towers right on top of Mission Trails where the “wild things” roam.  We’re talking about the home turf of Wile E Coyote and Road Runner.

Of course, as one of the unofficial custodians of this beautiful park, I must now let the world know what is going on in this corner of the planet, and why we must all be concerned about this.

It would be like plunking a power plant down on top of Yosemite or Zion or Central Park.  These are the places that people go for their emotional, physical and spiritual well being.  As Robert Redford said at the Yosemite National Park dedication in 1985, “I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security.  Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad.  Otherwise what is there to defend?”

I personally believe that Mission Trails Regional Park should have the protection status of our national parks, and that the last thing we, as a world community, should do is allow a bunch of greedy energy corporations to ruin paradise.  And that’s why I made this little video with the help of my husband: