SAN DIEGO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is backing San Diego Gas & Electric in its bid to string power lines across Anza Borrego State Park, pending a decision expected from a state panel this summer, it was reported Sunday.

The decision is just the latest to put the governor at odds with environmentalists since he moved to close 48 parks to save money and voiced support of a six-lane toll road through San Onofre State Beach, the Los Angeles Times reported.

"The project's significance lies not only in its supplying additional power for a thriving and growing region but in doing so in a way that truly moves California into the future," Schwarzenegger wrote to Dian Grueneich, the Public Utility Commission member overseeing the project's application, in a December letter that came to light last month.

The 150-mile transmission line would run through the park for more than 20 miles, replacing wooden poles that carry lower-voltage lines with towers up to 160 feet tall.

SDG&E and parent Sempra Energy promise the so-called Sunrise Powerlink transmission line will carry renewable power from the sun, wind and ground, mostly from yet-undeveloped plants in the bright, hot Imperial Valley, the newspaper reported.

State law requires utilities to get 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2010, a benchmark SDG&E has said it cannot meet. The utility now gets about 6 percent of its supplies from renewable sources, The Times reported.

The PUC is expected to make decision about the project late this summer.

The state agency plans a public hearing in Borrego Springs on May 12.

Opponents say the project would mar sweeping views on 90,000 of Anza-Borrego's 600,000 acres and spoil the solitude of the desert with electrical buzzing. Park officials, in an environmental review, proposed five alternatives, including a path south of the park through the Cleveland National Forest, The Times reported.

"The idea that we're going to sacrifice critical pieces of our environment to protect other pieces of our environment seems a little ironic," said Elizabeth Goldstein, president of the nonprofit California Parks Foundation. "That's an irony I cannot accept. We have to find a way to do both."