South San Joaquin Irrigation District and PG&E are heading toward a pre-trial conference for a court showdown that ultimately will decide if SSJID can exercise eminent domain powers conferred by the state onto irrigation districts to acquire the local PG&E system.
The “right to take” trial in San Joaquin County Superior Court is one of two remaining hurdles SSJID has to clear after 22 years of regulatory and judicial challenges in their effort to deliver on its promise of providing retail electricity to Manteca, Ripon, and Escalon at 15 percent below PG&E rates.
Such a trial had been scheduled for June 23, 2025.
But a non-affiliated case that involved a public’s rights to acquire utility systems under the California constitution for the benefit of people they serve had been appealed to the State Supreme Court could have changed the legal yardsticks lower courts could use to weigh the emeient domain move.
The appeal in the other case — the Town of Apple Valley and the privately-owned Apple Valley Ranchos Water Company — regarding the standard of review lower courts could use was rejected last month by the state’s high court.
SSJID and PG&E agreed to wait until the Apple Valley case ...