3. Procedural History
On December 13, 2005, PacifiCorp filed A.05-12-011 seeking a permit to construct (PTC)1 additional transmission capacity between Yreka and Weed, California. In this initial application, PacifiCorp proposed upgrading its existing transmission line from 69 kV to 115 kV for 17 miles between the Yreka substation and the Weed Substation.2 PacifiCorp also proposed adding approximately 1.6 miles of new 115 kV transmission line, and modifying three existing substations.
On PacifiCorp's motion,3 we bifurcated the case into two parts. During the first part of the proceeding, we evaluated PacifiCorp's request to construct the first 17 miles of the line, which involved upgrading lines along an existing transmission corridor. We approved that portion of the line without hearings and with the analysis of a FMND (rather than an EIR) in D.06-10-047.
In October 2006, we held hearings on the last 1.6 miles of the line that PacifiCorp proposed be built in an area without existing transmission facilities. We determined thereafter in D.07-03-0434 that the concerns raised at hearings by residents of the area affected by the 1.6 mile portion required that we prepare an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) analyzing alternatives to the route PacifiCorp proposed.
PacifiCorp also filed a second application during the early 2007 time period. This application, A.07-01-046, sought approval for the Weed Segment Project, in which PacifiCorp would upgrade a transmission line that began where the 1.6 mile segment left off, and traveled to the Weed Substation, which would also receive upgrades. In an April 4, 2007 ruling, the assigned Commissioner consolidated A.07-01-046 and A.05-12-011, citing an earlier ruling reasoning that to analyze the two connected projects separately would constitute impermissible piecemealing under CEQA.5 The same ruling held that the Weed Segment Project should be included in the EIR's analysis.
During the ensuing months of 2007, our consultants prepared the EIR with input from the public. We issued a Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for public and resource agency comment on July 31, 2007. We held a public meeting on August 28, 2007 in Weed to take public comment on the DEIR. We incorporated all substantive comments received and on October 10, 2007 issued our FEIR.
1 The Commission's General Order (GO) 131-D requires utilities to seek a PTC if the project is designed to operate between 50 kV and 200 kV.
2 There are two substations involved in these two applications: the Weed Substation, addressed in A.05-12-011, and the Weed Junction Substation, addressed in A.07-01-046. The assigned Commissioner allowed PacifiCorp to proceed with two of the three proposed substation upgrades (the upgrades to the Yreka Substation and the Weed Junction Substation) by ruling dated June 5, 2006, on the ground they were exempt from CEQA review under GO 131-D. We ratified the assigned Commissioner's June 5, 2006 ruling with regard to these substations in D.06-10-047.
3 Motion to Accelerate Procedural Schedule, filed August 10, 2006.
4 We affirmed this decision on rehearing in D.07-07-021.
5 We also cited an earlier ruling, Assigned Commissioner's Ruling Regarding Piecemealing and Substations, filed June 5, 2006, finding that the Commission should review together the Yreka-Weed transmission line project applied for in A.05-12-011, and the Weed Segment Project for which PacifiCorp had not yet filed an application.
