11. Consistency with Public Utilities Code Section 1002

Pub. Util. Code § 1002 requires the Commission to give consideration to community values, recreational and park areas, historical and aesthetic values, and influence on the environment. Our efforts here represent a balancing of these factors. By selecting S2A/S2 and D1 we have adopted environmentally superior alternatives identified by our CEQA process. These routes have no impact on recreational and park resources. With respect to historic and aesthetic values, these routes have limited impacts. S2A/S2 does not impact any cultural resources and is underground thus limiting visual impacts. D1 is the shortest route option, does not impact historic resources and travels through gravel mining operations while overhead so does not have a negative visual impact. The D1 substation location is located within a commercial development area and can be screened to eliminate visual impacts. Thus these routes meet the requirements of § 1002. However there is opposition to these two alternatives by local leaders, arguing that community values dictate against these choices. PG&E appears to rely on the "community values" as expressed by local governmental leaders only when they support PG&E's preferred outcome. For example, PG&E cites extensively from testimony by Dublin leaders to support selection of its preferred Dublin substation location over the environmentally superior D1 location. At the same time, PG&E downplays Pleasanton's opposition to locating a transmission line in residential neighborhoods and Livermore's preference for undergrounding the proposed connection between a North Livermore substation and the Contra Costa-Newark line, as somehow not representative of community values. PG&E cannot have it both ways.

In this case we have carefully examined the concerns expressed by residents and local leaders regarding siting of high voltage transmission lines and/or substations in their communities. As described above, we have eliminated the S1 alternative and PG&E's proposed project in Pleasanton, largely based on concerns over impacts to residential neighborhoods. Although the Pleasanton Parties prefer the S2A/S2/S5 alternative over the S2A/S2 alternative, we believe that taken as a whole, the all underground alternative S2A/S2 provides the best long-term solution to the Pleasanton area need for additional transmission capacity. The S2A/S2 alternative has the least visual impacts of the alternatives and although a portion of the route would be located within a roadway that is bordered by residential housing, it provides a sufficient buffer between the transmission line and residences. It also costs less than the S2A/S2/S5 alternative.

Likewise Dublin city officials oppose selection of D1. We have addressed the potential visual impacts of the environmentally superior D1 Dublin substation by requiring PG&E to screen the substation, for example, with façade walls, so that it appear like any other commercial establishment in the development area. Dublin city officials point out that use of the D1 property for a substation would remove this land from commercial development and would impact development fees. But the record makes clear that the five acres required for the substation would represent only 0.12% of the land subject to the Eastern Dublin Specific Plan. Changed economic times, either positive or negative, could easily impact Dublin's collection of development fees much more than the use of a five acre parcel for a substation. On the other hand, D1 presents numerous benefits. D1 allows for a shorter transmission line to serve the substation, locates the substation closer to the load center, eliminates environmental impacts, and has virtually no impacts on the community because the substation is fed from an underground line. The benefits of locating the substation to serve Dublin at the D1 location over PG&E's proposed project location simply exceed the speculative impacts claimed by the community.

Thus we have weighed all the factors required under § 1002 and find that PG&E should be granted a certificate of public convenience and necessity for the S2A/S2 and D1 alternatives identified herein.