A 500 kV Line in Our Own Backyard That Never Got Built: LEAPS

The Talega-Escondido / Valley-Serrano Interconnect was a roughly 30-mile, 500 kV line proposed to run through the Cleveland National Forest near Lake Elsinore, Wildomar, Murrieta, and Temecula — connecting Edison's Valley-Serrano system to SDG&E's Talega-Escondido line. It was the transmission half of the Nevada Hydro Company's Lake Elsinore pumped-storage project (LEAPS). ^[1]

It was pushed for nearly two decades. It never got the federal land authorization or the state certificate it needed, and it was never built. ^[1]

At the federal level, FERC dismissed the project's license in 2021 (rehearing denied in 2022) — a central reason being that the U.S. Forest Service could not authorize the line to cross Cleveland National Forest land. At the state level, the CPUC dismissed the transmission application twice for an incomplete environmental filing; it never received a certificate. ^[1]

The opposition included the cities of Lake Elsinore, Wildomar, Murrieta, and Temecula, the Pechanga Band, the U.S. Forest Service, and environmental groups — much the same coalition that exists today. ^[1]

This was a different sponsor (Nevada Hydro, not SDG&E) and a transmission-plus-pumped-storage scheme, and the FERC docket is technically still open — it has been revived by a later owner. So the honest description is “repeatedly dismissed and never built,” not “permanently killed.” ^[1]

What it proves still matters: a big 500 kV line in this exact corridor can be stalled for twenty years by environmental review, the federal-land process, and a determined local coalition. The crossings of national forest and protected land are real chokepoints. ^[1]