A planned high-voltage power line in the San Diego County desert has sparked outrage over its proposed path through the heart of California’s largest state park.
At nearly 650,000 acres, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is known for its sprawling solitude: miles of lunar rock faces and sandy washes frame spindly Ocotillo stands, wild f lower superblooms and designated dark skies. But the proposed Golden Pacific Powerlink from San Diego Gas & Electric could soon change that, opponents say.
The 500-kilovolt transmission line would run some 140 miles from an important substation in southeastern Imperial County, near the Mexican border, to a new one on the border of Orange and San Diego counties near the Pacific Ocean — carving a steel-towered path through Anza-Borrego to get there…