TANC Tanked

The plan is likely dead for building a huge system of power lines from Lassen County down the valley and through south San Joaquin County. Utilities districts in Sacramento, Modesto and Turlock have all backed out of the project that would have impacted huge swaths of land south of Manteca.

The Transmission Agency of Northern California (TANC), was a coalition of 15 power providers who were hoping to create more redundancy in the power grid and tap into alternative power sources in Lassen County. Public Utilities may be required by 2020 to ensure that 33 percent of their power sources are renewable. This project was seen as a way to help meet this future mandate. In addition, it would address a number of current congestion areas in the current power grid.

While the project may be needed some day, TANC's pre-planning doomed the project. While those of us in local government understand that importance of involving the public early and often in controversial projects, TANC showed the arrogance typical of many special districts when putting together their proposal. More specifically, when looking at possible routes, they used aerial photos that were over a decade old. This meant that the huge amount of development built over the past decade was not considered on their maps. Additionally, they did very little outreach with local planning agencies, so they had no idea where future growth would be going as well. Finally, while Stanislaus, not San Joaquin County would most of the benefit from the project, most of the transmission lines went through south San Joaquin County.

To add insult to injury, property owners impacted by the project were given poorly worded notices that they might be part of the project, further alienating the public. All in all, the group did everything in its power to create a firestorm of opposition before they'd even finished analyzing the potential routes for the project.

To read more about the project cancellation, click here.