Mike Duvall, Sempra and Dirty Mexican Power
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Amidst all the talk of spanking, dripping and moral hypocrisy stemming from Orange County Republican legislator Mike Duvall’s alleged affair with Sempra energy lobbyist Heidi DeJong Barsuglia, perhaps it’s time to look a little more closely into Duvall’s tenure as vice-chair of the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee. You know, the group whose charge just happens to include overseeing public utilities, the California Public Utilities Commission, the California Energy Commission, the California Independent System Operator, Electricity Oversite Board, energy companies, common carriers, electricity and alternative energy development and natural gas. In other words, all of the things that Sempra has vested interests in.
Sempra is no ordinary player in the California power game. According to its most recent lobbying report the corporation had its hands in 150 different bills in the state assembly, while dominating the energy sector along the international border regions of Southern California through its subsidiary San Diego Gas and Electric.
Sempra recently helped push through the extremely controversial $1.9 billion Sunrise Powerlink, a 150 mile electrical transmission line project in the San Diego area, that, until recently, was plotted to cut through huge swaths of the stunning Anza-Borrego State Park. According to the Sacramento Bee, Sempra stands to gain $1.4 billion from the plan, whose construction will be ratepayer subsidized. Duvall was a major supporter of the plan.
Perhaps even more interesting are accusations that the Sunrise transmission line project is an excuse for Sempra to import dirty power from Mexico, where the corporation has massive energy holdings that they are planning to expand.
Back in 2003, Sempra, and their 625 megawatt Termoelectrica de Mexicali plant, became the first foreign company to generate power in Mexico’s tightly government controlled energy market. The construction of the plant was a major coup for power companies, and opened up a wave of international investment in power plant construction.
Greenpeace criticized the plant at the time, saying it would turn the border region into a “dirty energy zone.”
Recently, Reuters reported that Termoelectrica de Mexicali was shut for nearly a month for “planned and unplanned reasons.” The plant has since reopened.
Sempra has denied any intention to use the Sunrise Powerlink to import energy from Mexico, dismissing the charges as conspiracy theory. However, just days prior to the Duvall scandal, Sempra announced plans to build a new electrical substation near a town called Jacumba in the border region in East County, California. Jacumba happens to sit almost directly across the border from a proposed Sempra $400 million wind energy plant in La Rumorosa, Mexico called “Energía Sierra Juárez.” The substation is awaiting approval from the California Public Utilities Commission, which is overseen by the same Committee of Utilities and Commerce that Duvall served as vice-chair.
Of course importing wind energy would seem a good idea. Skirting California’s tight regulations could bring green power to the market far quicker than dealing with years of environmental impact reports in the United States. However, Sempra also controls massive liquid natural gas holdings in Mexico. After transmission lines are built, a process greased by the promise of new green energy from south of the border, what’s to stop Sempra from building more LNG powered plants like Termoelectrica de Mexicali? Plants that don’t have to conform to California’s strict environmental codes. With strong ties to the Mexican government and control of major cross-border transmission lines, Sempra could conceivably dominate a burgeoning new dirty power market.
Sound a little farfetched? Maybe. But so does the prospect of an attractive, successful 36-year old sleeping with a married, old douchebag like this for his charm, wit and intelligence.
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Matthew raises legitimate issues we have been dealing with for several years in our border communities: Sempra and SDG&E have used their huge political machine, including massive contributions to political campaigns, pet projects and charities of those they seek to influence, and now it appears that sex has also been used, to wield support from a wide variety of the usual suspects.
In my opinion, they are not above lying and cheating and buying their way into total and very profitable control. In fact, it appears to be a very big part of what they do and how they do it.
Our low-income rural, scenic and at risk human and natural communities are impacted by SDG&E’s Sunrise Powerlink, Sempra’s 1,250 MW Energia Sierra Juarez wind project (really a front for LNG), with its new cross border 500 kV line the new 60-80 acre ECO Substation with a 600 % increase in our Boulevard Substation, a new SDG&E/ Inverngy 160 MW wind project on tribal land (where local and state laws do not apply), Iberdrola’s 200 MW Tule wind project in a public conservation recreation area, and more, yet we can barely get the names of our communities properly noted in official documents.
The significant and cumulative Class I impacts from these many projects have been piecemealed to evade proper analyses and mitigation. There are over 100 Class I impacts from Sunrise alone.
Regardless of the obstacles and massive expense, three grassroots groups have taken on the Sempra/SDG&E machine, without help from the big enviro groups, via an appeal and soon to be filed federal district court cases challenging the federal approvals for the rate-payer rip-off Sunrise Powerlink
What these companies are doing is wrong. The way they are doing it is wrong. And the way they continue to get away with what I believe to be scams and shams is wrong, too.
The alleged sleazy sex scandal with former Assemblyman Duvall and Sempra/SDG&E lobbyist DeJong is just the tip of ice berg in regards to these companies, their lack of ethical behavior, and anything goes method of operation. SDG&E recently agreed to pay about $1 million to the PUC, without admission of guilt of course, for “misrepresenting” the southern route of the Sunrise Powerlink project which impacts our area. To them, that is just a cost of doing business.
These so-called Sempra wind energy and other projects are not benign. They represent major problems for us, our quality of life and our property values. They are slated for a fire-prone binational area that has been scientifically ID’d as one of only a handfull of globally significant biological hotspots that need conservation and protection from industrial projects like these.
There are better cheaper ways to generate renwable energy at and near the point of use–but SDG&E, Sempra, and other major players have repeatedly lobbied to oppose them because they would lose the level of control they currently enjoy and profit from.
Donna Tisdale
Boulevard, CA
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