Movement Against ‘Golden Pacific Powerlink’
PRESERVATION ACTION ALERT
Help Protect Backcountry Historic Resources and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
SOHO / July-August 2026 Newsletter
SOHO strongly urges our members and supporters to speak out against SDG&E’s proposed Golden Pacific Powerlink transmission project because of likely destructive impacts on Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and the immense surrounding historic and cultural landscapes.
This proposal, with a preliminary route stretching 145 miles, would introduce major high-voltage transmission infrastructure through one of California’s most treasured public landscapes, bringing prominent transmission towers, access roads, construction staging areas, and long-term industrial impacts into protected desert lands and historic environments that belong to all Californians.
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is California’s largest state park, encompassing more than 650,000 acres of wilderness, wildlife habitat, dark skies, Indigenous cultural sites, paleontological resources, scenic vistas, recreational and camping opportunities, and historic landscapes. The backcountry around the park contains irreplaceable historic resources, including the Warner–Carrillo Ranch House, Eagle Rock, historic travel corridors; and landscapes deeply connected to the history of Native peoples, ranching, settlement, and early transportation throughout the Southern California desert.
- Please go to original here for links
At a time when Southern California’s open lands continue to disappear beneath expanding development and sprawl, the Warner–Carrillo Ranch House stands as a remarkable and increasingly rare exception: a National Historic Landmark still surrounded not by subdivisions and urbanization, but by more than 40,000 acres of protected watershed and open landscape. Through decades of stewardship and conservation, this historic site remains extraordinarily intact—offering visitors a rare opportunity to experience a setting that appears much as it did during the era of western migration.
Today, the Warner–Carrillo Ranch House and its environs are the only place that visitors can still stand where generations of 19th-century travelers got their first glimpse of the “promised land” after crossing hundreds of miles along the Southern Emigrant Trail. Now, for anyone gazing across this same unspoiled horizon, which is largely unchanged by time, the experience is profoundly unparalleled.
The restored adobe Warner–Carrillo Ranch House itself is a powerful example of what preservation, conservation, and collaboration can achieve: a place where architecture, history, and landscape remain inseparable. The intrusion of industrial-scale transmission towers and infrastructure into this setting would irreparably damage one of California’s most authentic and significant historic landscapes.
SOHO is deeply concerned that this power project would permanently alter the character and integrity of these majestic historic and cultural landscapes. Once industrialized at this scale, these places cannot be restored.
We are also troubled by the precedent large transmission corridors create. The controversial yet completed 115-mile Sunrise Powerlink opened the door to extensive industrial energy development throughout the region, fundamentally transforming previously undeveloped desert and rural landscapes. The cumulative impacts continue to threaten the ecological, scenic, cultural, and historic values of California’s desert and backcountry.
SOHO urges our members and friends to make your voices heard now, while decisions are still being shaped.
Reach Out to Your Representatives
Here is contact information to write emails to your state senator, assembly member, and county supervisor.
Governor Gavin Newsom – gavin.newsom@gov.ca.gov
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) – public.advisor@cpuc.ca.gov, subject: Golden Pacific Powerlink – Temecula
Send comments page
San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) – GoldenPacific@sdge.com
Golden Pacific Powerlink survey
In your emails, we encourage you to:
Oppose routes crossing Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
Oppose routes impacting the Warner–Carrillo Ranch House and its environs
Support alternatives that avoid protected public lands and historic resources
Call for full transparency and public review
Advocate for meaningful Tribal consultation and public participation
Emphasize the importance of preserving historic, cultural, recreational, scenic, and ecological resources for future generations
Personal letters from residents, park visitors, historians, preservation advocates, Tribal community members, scientists, business owners, and desert supporters can make a real difference. California can pursue responsible energy solutions without sacrificing one of its most extraordinary landscapes and cultural heritage areas.
SOHO will continue monitoring closely and advocating for the protection of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and the historic resources that define our remarkable region.
For updates and action opportunities, please stay connected by subscribing to receive SOHO’s eNews and advocacy alerts.
Sample Letter
I’m no fan of SDG&E, but it’s important to get the facts right.
The portion of the new transmission line in Anza-Borrego follows Yaqui Wells Road, a dirt road that leads to the Yaqui Wash Primitive Campground. There is already an existing power line in this corridor, and the new line will replace that existing line rather than create a new route.
The transmission towers will be installed using helicopters, so no new access roads will be constructed. The project will also help deliver renewable energy generated by solar and geothermal sources.
I own a home in Borrego Springs, and based on what I’ve learned about the project, I support the new transmission line.
My understanding is the existing wooden transmission poles would be replaced by much larger 180-200 ft metal towers. The taller transmission towers require flashing aviation safety lights the current poles don’t have. That would make a big difference in the park at night.
Wooden transmission poles? For transmission lines? Can you elaborate on that point?
Meanwhile, Proponents—including SDG&E, the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, and local electrical workers’ union IBEW 47—state the 500-kV line is essential to meet growing power demands, deliver renewable (solar/geothermal) energy, and resolve transmission limits across the backcountry.
I’ve learned the public response is just lip service to crossing the corporate T’s and dotting the I’s, from dealing with SDSU and fire danger dormitory expansion. Not a halt in the process.
They don’t put flashlights on transmission lines unless it’s near an airport which this is not. The biggest concern is a rare butterfly in the area.
Adam, your claim that it’s all about a rare butterfly is disingenuous at best and at worst, part of a SDG&E disinformation campaign. So, just where did you get that idea?
Here is a link to an article from the LA Times which has a map showing the route of this proposed project, along with some facts about its impact in California’s largest State Park:
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2026-05-17/in-california-desert-planned-high-voltage-power-line-sparks-outrage
If you don’t want to read the whole article, here’s an important paragraph from it:
“The plan would disrupt the habitats and migration patterns of many of the park’s 1,500 species of plants and animals, including endangered Peninsular bighorn sheep that are already being hemmed in by the U.S. border wall, Fordem said on a recent hike around the area. It would also require a rare act of “un-designating” some of the park’s protected wilderness areas.”
1500 species of plants and animals is a heckuva lot more than “a rare butterfly.”
We humans are not “above” nature, we are a part of it. We need to be more responsible for our short term actions that negatively affect our natural world in the long term.
Thanks Christie, we also provided a map of the route.