Under contract to the CPUC, Aspen is currently preparing a joint EIR/EIS for Southern California Edison's (SCE's) proposed Antelope-Pardee Transmission Project to provide capacity to transmit power generated by planned wind projects in the Tehachapi and Antelope Valley areas. To accommodate this need, SCE is proposing to construct a new, 25.6-mile 500-kV single-circuit transmission line between SCE's existing Antelope and Pardee substations in northern Los Angeles County, California. The proposed 500-kV transmission line would replace an existing 66-kV line that traverses the majority of the proposed route between the Antelope Substation in Lancaster and the Pardee Substation in Santa Clarita, including approximately 13 miles within the Angeles National Forest. The proposed project would include electrical interconnections at the existing Antelope and Pardee substations, as well as an expansion of the Antelope Substation and relocation of several existing 66-kV subtransmission lines in the vicinity of the Antelope Substation. The proposed project route would be constructed within an existing right-of-way (ROW) for 22.8 miles, of which 17.5 miles would be widened. Construction of a new ROW would be required for 2.8 miles of the proposed project route.

Currently, transmission of wind power from the Tehachapi and Antelope Valley areas is constrained by the existing Antelope-Mesa 220-kV transmission line, which would be overloaded by the addition of new wind generation. SCE estimates that the proposed Project would increase overall system capability to allow up to 350 MW of new wind generation to be interconnected with the SCE transmission grid without overloading the Antelope-Mesa 220-kV line. It would accomplish this by providing capacity to transmit power from the Antelope Substation to the Pardee Substation rather than directing more power to the Antelope-Mesa line. The proposed Antelope-Pardee project is needed now to accommodate several wind generation projects that either have applications pending before Kern County or are in the advanced planning stage and expected to submit applications in the near future. Due to their locations, these upcoming wind generation projects will need to interconnect to the Antelope Substation to allow power to be delivered to load in the Los Angeles area. However, these wind generation projects cannot be interconnected to the SCE transmission system without an increase in transmission capacity south of Antelope Substation. The proposed project will allow these initial wind generation projects to interconnect to the transmission system and allow time for future transmission upgrades to be planned and constructed to accommodate more wind generation in the future.

The EIR/EIS will analyze eight alternatives, including an alternative that avoids Forest System lands and an alternative that would involve installation of a portion of the transmission underground. The alternatives that traverse Forest System lands have been designed to reduce the visual impacts of the transmission and minimize effects on other Forest resources. The alternatives were selected based on an extensive alternatives screening process in which a wide range of alternative routes, system configurations, tower types, and underground technologies were evaluated.

On June 24, 2005, the CPUC issued a Notice of Preparation for the EIR for the project and the Forest Service published a Notice of Intent to prepare an EIS. Public scoping meetings were conducted in July 2005. The Draft EIR/EIS is expected to be published in July 2006.