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Golden Pacific Powerlink: New Routes, Continued Concerns
September/October 2026
In June of this year, we first alerted you to this issue and asked for your help. SDG&E has released new information about its proposed Golden Pacific Powerlink transmission project, including three alternative routes, and has announced a series of community open houses. This is an important opportunity to learn more, ask questions, and make your concerns known.
The Golden Pacific Powerlink is a proposed 150-mile, 500-kilovolt transmission corridor. extending from the Imperial Valley to Orange County. With an estimated cost of $1.62 billion, it would be SDG&E’s largest capital project and the longest 500-kilovolt transmission line in its service territory.
It is important to understand that these lines would simply transmit SDG&E's power to Orange County and the Los Angeles area. They would provide no electricity to anywhere in San Diego County, yet SDG&E customers would shoulder part of the financial burden.
All of the proposed transmission lines would be above ground, with towers that could reach approximately 200 feet in height.
As Save Temecula has stated and we concur: "California has the technology and expertise to lead the nation in modern infrastructure. There are numerous alternatives to spending billions of ratepayer dollars on massive overhead extra-high-voltage transmission lines that will be outdated by the time they are completed. We should be advancing safer, smarter, less destructive alternatives, not defaulting to century-old models that impose enormous costs on ratepayers, residents, communities, and the environment."
The project still requires approval from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and remains in the early stages of environmental and regulatory review. The final route has not been determined.
Now is the time to speak up.
SDG&E has now released its preferred route along with three alternative routes. One alternative would reduce the project's footprint within Anza-Borrego Desert State Park by approximately nine miles by routing the line through Borrego Springs instead. Another would bypass Temecula by shifting a portion of the route south along Palomar Mountain.
While these alternatives demonstrate that routing options exist, they also demonstrate that shifting the route can simply shift the impacts from one community or landscape to another.
SOHO urges SDG&E and the CPUC to pursue alternatives that genuinely avoid protected public lands and irreplaceable historic and cultural resources.
For background and more details about the project and its potential impacts, please read SOHO’s original Golden Pacific Powerlink Preservation Action Alert.
Why the Warner–Carrillo Ranch House Matters
Among the historic resources that will be affected by the project is the Warner–Carrillo Ranch House, a National Historic Landmark and one of Southern California’s most significant surviving historic landscapes.
The ranch house remains surrounded by a remarkably intact landscape that helps tell the story of 19th-century migration, ranching, Native peoples, and early transportation across Southern California. Visitors can still experience the broad landscape encountered by generations of travelers along the Southern Emigrant Trail.
The historic setting is inseparable from the significance of the ranch house. Introducing industrial-scale transmission infrastructure into this landscape would permanently diminish the integrity and authenticity of a place that has survived remarkably intact.
All of the newly proposed routes, as well as the previous routes, affect this national
landmark site.
Attend an SDG&E Community In-Person Open House
SDG&E has announced four opportunities for the public to speak directly with project staff, learn more about the proposal, ask questions, and provide comments and feedback.
All open houses are from 4 to 7pm - Sign up to attend
Please Speak Up
Whether you attend an open house, participate online, submit written comments, or contact elected officials, please continue to make your voice heard.
SOHO urges you to:
- Oppose routes through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.
- Oppose routes that would damage the historic setting and environs of the Warner–Carrillo Ranch House.
- Support alternatives that avoid protected public lands and significant historic and cultural resources.
- Call for meaningful Tribal consultation and full public participation.
- Demand transparency about the routes being considered and the impacts of each alternative.
Please continue contacting decision makers - your state senator, state assembly member, county supervisor, and other elected representatives.
If you have already written, write again. The project is still being shaped, and public participation matters.
SOHO will continue monitoring the Golden Pacific Powerlink proposal and advocating for the protection of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, the Warner–Carrillo Ranch House, and the historic and cultural landscapes of our region.
Please attend. Please write. Please speak up.
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