Coalition gathers support for stopping Green Path

Hi-Desert Star



YUCCA VALLEY — A community-wide public meeting to present plans to stop the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Green Path north corridor project will be held at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in the Yucca Valley Community Center.

The California Desert Coalition is holding the meeting and asks everyone to join the group to provide input and learn more about Green Path North.

For information, call the CDC at 365-0900 or visit http://www.cadesertco.org/.

The Green Path North is one of several alternatives contemplated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to transport energy into L.A. This particular route would cut through Desert Hot Springs, Big Morongo Preserve, Morongo Valley, Yucca Valley, Pioneertown, Pipes Canyon, Flamingo Heights and Landers on its way to Hesperia, according to the CDC.

In July, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power submitted applications to the Bureau of Land Management and the National Forest Service for right-of-way access on federal lands for the power path.

At that time, the utility’s Commission President H. David Nahai said a public meeting would be held in the Hi-Desert in later phases of the proposal process.

He also disclosed the estimated date for the power line’s operation is November 2013.

Partners in the venture are the City of Los Angeles, the Imperial Irrigation District — where geothermal energy is being produced and where production of solar energy is proposed — the Boston, Mass.-based Citizens Energy Corporation and the L.A. Department of Water and Power.

It is the position of the CDC that the Green Path North corridor is unnecessary, inappropriate and will negatively affect the Hi-Desert’s quality of life.