They've Beaten Sempra Here Recently: Line 3602

SDG&E and SoCalGas — both Sempra companies — proposed a roughly 47-mile, $639 million natural-gas pipeline (Line 3602) from the Rainbow/Fallbrook area to Miramar in San Diego. In June 2018, the CPUC denied it, finding the companies had not demonstrated the project was needed at that scale and cost, and pointing them toward a cheaper fix to the existing line instead. ^[1]

Community and environmental groups had argued the pipeline was oversized and unnecessary — and the Commission agreed on need and cost. ^[1]

This is recent, it is the same parent company, it is the same regulator, and it turned on the same question — whether the project was actually needed. It is direct evidence that the “you haven't proven this is needed” argument can defeat a Sempra project at the CPUC. (Note: Line 3602 was a gas pipeline, not a 500 kV power line — the lesson is about the need test and the utility, not the technology.) ^[1]