9. Overriding Considerations
Pursuant to CEQA Guidelines §15093, the Commission may only approve a project that results in significant and unavoidable impacts upon a finding that there are overriding considerations. The Commission previously found that the DPV2 project as a whole will provide substantial benefits, in that it will provide significant economic benefits for CAISO ratepayers, increase the reliability of the interstate transmission network, increase operational flexibility, and provide insurance value as an economic hedge against low-probability, high-impact events, and that the DPV2 project's unavoidable impacts are acceptable in light of these substantial benefits, which constitute an overriding consideration warranting approval of the project, despite each and every unavoidable impact. (D.07-01-040, at 96.) The Southern Alternative to the Colorado Substation Expansion project will modify the DPV2 project to enable the interconnection of new renewable energy resources in the Blythe area, such as the Blythe Solar Power Project and the Genesis Solar Energy Project, to the CAISO-controlled transmission grid, aiding in progress towards federal and state greenhouse gas reduction and renewable electricity goals, including the requirements set forth in the California Renewable Portfolio Standard Program,10 Assembly Bill 32 (California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006), the Governor's Executive Order S-14-08 to increase the state's Renewable Energy Standard to 33% renewable energy by 2020, and Title XVII, Section 1705, of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (authorizing a new program for rapid deployment of, among other things, renewable energy projects). We find that the Southern Alternative Colorado Substation Expansion project's contribution to progress toward federal and state greenhouse gas reduction and renewable electricity goals, in conjunction with the overall DPV2 project's significant economic benefits for CAISO ratepayers, increased reliability of the interstate transmission network, increase operational flexibility, and insurance value as an economic hedge against low-probability, high-impact events, are overriding considerations that support our approval of the Southern Alternative Colorado River Substation expansion project, despite its significant unavoidable impacts on cultural resources and cumulative greenhouse gas emissions.
SCE's witness Jorge Chacon also asserts that the project will provide additional benefits of (1) maximizing the use of the existing transmission system in the Blythe area by establishing an interconnection to it; (2) improving the reliability of the transmission grid following interconnection of new generation resources in compliance with reliability criteria requirement by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, CAISO, and SCE's planning design guidelines and criteria; (3) allowing SCE to construct facilities in a manner that will minimize service interruptions and environmental impacts; and (4) create construction jobs. With respect to item (1), it is not apparent that establishing an interconnection to the existing transmission system is a benefit of the project so much as a description of it. With respect to items (2) and (3), it is not apparent that compliance with required reliability criteria and minimizing service interruptions and environmental impacts are benefits of the project so much as best business and legal requirements for its construction. With respect to item (4), while the creation of construction jobs is a societal and economic benefit, SCE does not offer evidence sufficient to identify the construction jobs in order to gauge whether they constitute a sufficient benefit to override the significant unavoidable impacts.
CARE challenges the assertion that the substation project will aid in progress towards federal and state greenhouse gas reduction and renewable electricity goals on the basis that there are other means of achieving these goals without impacting the environment, such as high levels of distributed generation. The fact that distributed generation has the potential to contribute to this goal does not detract from the fact that the substation expansion project does so.
10 The California Renewable Portfolio Standards Program was established by Senate Bill (SB) 1078 (Stats. 2002, Ch. 516, Sec. 3, codified as Pub. Util. Code §§ 399.11 et seq., effective January 1, 2003). The Renewable Portfolio Standards Program or related elements have been amended several times, including by SB 107 (Stats. 2006, Ch. 464), Assembly Bill (AB) 1969 (Stats. 2006, Ch. 731), SB 1036 (Stats. 2007, Ch. 685), SB 380 (Stats. 2008, Ch. 544), SB 32 (Stats. 2009, Ch. 328), SB 695 (Stats. 2009, Ch. 337), and SB 2 (2011-12 First Extraordinary Session, Stats. 2011, Ch 1).
