Ultimately, the\u00a0California Public Utilities Commission, or CPUC<\/a>, will have the final say on where the 500-kilovolt line will go \u2014 or whether it even gets built.<\/p>\n Public feedback, critiques and suggestions gathered from the open houses, SDG&E officials say, will help inform the CPUC\u2019s decision. SDG&E plans to formally file paperwork for the project with the utilities commission later this year.<\/p>\n The project has already generated opposition from residents and politicians stretching from the Anza-Borrego Desert to Temecula.<\/p>\n The open houses are one of the early steps of what figures to be a years-long process that includes public hearings, environmental impact reviews and regulatory proceedings on the local, state and federal levels.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all need reliable electricity and our lives increasingly depend on the electrical grid,\u201d Erica Martin, SDG&E\u2019s director of project development<\/a>, said. \u201cAnd that is why the state has identified a robust, formalized state transmission planning process to determine the state\u2019s needs, to identify the projects that are necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n The project stems from a 180-page transmission plan for 2022 and 2023<\/a> issued by the California Independent System Operator<\/a>, which manages the electric grid for about 80% of the state. The plan found the need for 45 transmission projects around the state, including what was eventually dubbed the Golden State Powerlink<\/a>.<\/p>\n The plan cited assumptions that the power system needs to add more than 40 gigawatts of new resources over the next 10 years to keep the electric system reliable and resilient \u2014 and meet California\u2019s clean energy mandates.<\/p>\n The state aims to derive 100% of its power from carbon-free sources by 2045. Policymakers also intend to transition from buildings and homes using natural gas to electricity, not to mention converting California\u2019s transportation sector from gasoline to electric vehicles.<\/p>\n The system operator, also known as the CAISO, has requested the transmission corridor go into service in mid-2032 or, at the latest, 2034.<\/p>\n SDG&E recently released a map of one route the utility prefers the transmission line to traverse, as well as three alternative routes.<\/p>\n Each of the suggested routes would go through Fallbrook.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to devastate this community,\u201d said Stephani Baxter, \u201cand all the communities that it\u2019s proposed to go through on many levels, not only environmental, but fire risk, insurability risk, our scenic views and vistas and property values.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Stephani](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/SUT-L-POWERLINK-OPENHOUSE-0825-01.jpeg\")
Stephani Baxter, left, of the Save Fallbrook group that is opposed to the Golden Pacific Powerlink, listens to Fallbrook resident Kathy Wehe outside the Fallbrook Community Center on Tuesday. (Rob Nikolewski\/The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n