October 2, 2023: The City of Norco filed legal action requesting that the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) reconsider the full undergrounding alternative of the Riverside Transmission Reliability Project (RTRP), which will construct above-ground transmission lines in a fire-prone area along Norco’s portion of the Santa Ana River.

February 14, 2024: The CPUC issued a proposed decision denying the City of Norco’s petition.

March 21, 2024: The CPUC held a public voting meeting in San Francisco, California, and voted 3-0 to reject the City of Norco’s Petition for Modification to underground the entire length of the RTRP.

Background

The City of Norco filed a Petition for Modification because it faced a dramatic increase in the risk of catastrophic wildfires within its city limits. This risk would be increased exponentially by the construction of an overhead, high-voltage transmission line that will pass through open space loaded with flammable vegetation in the very region that gave the notorious Santa Ana Winds their name.

As part of this legal action, the City of Norco explains in detail why material factual changes have occurred and now warrant reconsideration of the underlying decision. The most notable change is the 267% increase in wildland fires within the City of Norco since 2021. In the Petition, the City of Norco urged the Commission to recognize that the recent factual changes that have heightened the wildfire risk in the fire-prone area of the overhead portion of the RTRP are not merely material changes in facts; they represent a critical change in the environment that has greatly accelerated in the last two years compared to the circumstances in place when the Commission finalized the environmental impact report and issued its decision.