The Temecula City Council Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution to oppose San Diego Gas & Electric’s (SDG&E) proposed 145-mile extra-high-voltage power line set to run through the city. The move came less than a month after the Riverside County Board of Supervisors took action to formally oppose the project as currently proposed.
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“We are mobilizing all evidence, every legal argument and legal remedy available to defend our community from this dangerous and devastating project,” Temecula City Manager Aaron Adams said at the July 14 meeting.
The Golden Pacific Powerlink is currently set to run from Imperial County to a new substation planned to be built in South Orange County, passing through Southwest Riverside County. However, the final route of the transmission line has not yet been selected, according to SDG&E.
Once the utility makes its determination and files the necessary applications, expected to happen later this year, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will be responsible for approving the final route.
Residents sporting yellow shirts with the words “Save Temecula” came out in force to show their opposition to the proposed project, which is currently set to run through the city, including the Temecula Creek corridor, a high-risk fire hazard zone.
“Over 8% of California’s largest wildfires have been started by transmission lines, and as a firefighter, I have firsthand experience with the devastation caused by these events,” said Russell Shirley, a local firefighter and candidate running for the Temecula City Council. “Residents have legitimate concerns about fire risk as seen in the Eaton and Palisades fires.”
A 2022 California state audit found that high-voltage power lines caused six of the state’s most destructive wildfires since 2015. Power lines have also been suspected of causing the Eaton fire that devastated Altadena in early 2025.
Earlier this year, SDG&E Chief Operating Officer Kevin Geraghty said high-voltage lines, like those proposed for the powerlink, were “almost never the source of emission or wildfire.”
“Where fires happen is in the lower voltage,” he said at the May 26 meeting. “And as you get into these structures, it’s almost never because of how high they are and how far they are away from each other.”
An investigation by the California Public Utilities Commission and the Consumer Protection and Safety Division found a 69-kilovolt line operated by SDG&E was responsible for the 2007 Witch Fire, which burned nearly 200,000 acres in San Diego County.
Representatives of SDG&E also said they hoped to mitigate the impact of the power lines on private property and real estate development in Temecula at that meeting.
Temecula Mayor Jessica Alexander was among those wearing a yellow “Save Temecula” shirt at Tuesday’s meeting.
Along with the fire risk, she expressed concerns about the proposed route’s potential impact on residential neighborhoods, schools, parks, businesses, agricultural land and Temecula Wine Country, playing a video from a recent trip she took to San Luis Obispo showing “power lines in every direction.”
“You’re able to hear those power lines from a little over half a mile to almost two miles away,” she said. “I’m going to be able to hear that possibly from my porch. I think that’s just unsafe and just absolutely disgusting, especially for Temecula.”
In addition to opposing the project’s proposed route, the council declared its intent to take legal action, hiring attorneys to represent the case before the CPUC.
“The city’s opposition to our Temecula route will be actively litigated before the California Public Utilities Commission, and if necessary, the court of appeals,” Adams said. “We’ve secured the most experienced CPUC attorneys who are well-versed in energy and public utility law.”
The city council has also placed the Golden Pacific Powerline on the agenda for all future meetings to allow the council to discuss developments as needed and to maintain transparency with residents, Adams said.
SDG&E is set to hold a series of in-person open houses next month, during which an updated map of the transmission line route is expected to be available.
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