Aerojet-General successfully challenges California city's efforts to order the placement of utility switching station and other structures on property remediated for future residential and commercial development
Client(s) Aerojet-General Corporation
Jones Day represents aerospace company and defense contractor Aerojet-General Corporation in a variety of environmental regulatory, litigation, and land use matters. One of those matters relates to Aerojet's former weapons testing facility in Chino Hills, California, which Aerojet shut down in the mid-1990s. Aerojet has spent tens of millions of dollars undertaking RCRA corrective actions at that facility, with the ultimate goal of developing the property for residential and/or commercial use. The City of Chino Hills, however, sought an order from the California Public Utilities Commission ("CPUC") that would have required Southern California Edison ("SCE"), the lead utility in the area, to place a switching station, transmission towers, and transmission lines on Aerojet's property to deliver wind power from the Tehachapi mountains, over Aerojet's objections. This infrastructure would substantially have reduced the value of Aerojet's property and made it less marketable for future residential or commercial development. SCE has an existing right of way for this infrastructure, and preferred to use it rather than Aerojet's property. After months of discovery and two-weeks of evidentiary hearings, the CPUC issued a decision rejecting the City's proposal.
In re Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project (CPUC Proceeding)
