A pair of possible outcomes emerged Tuesday for San Diego Gas & Electric Co.'s controversial proposal to cut power to as many as 130,000 residents of rural San Diego County during Santa Ana winds, as a tool for preventing power lines from sparking fires.

Neither outcome is what SDG&E was seeking.

An administrative law judge recommended that the five-member California Public Utilities Commission reject the plan, and one of the commissioners recommended allowing SDG&E to launch, with conditions, a one-season experiment that would expire Dec. 31.

The recommendations by Administrative Law Judge Timothy Kenney and Commissioner Timothy Alan Simon will be forwarded to the commission for a vote Sept. 10.

Predictably, SDG&E officials backed Simon's recommendation.

"He recognizes that there is merit to having a power shutoff plan and that it deserves to be evaluated," said SDG&E spokeswoman Stephanie Donovan, in a telephone interview Tuesday night. "What he is proposing is essentially a pilot program."

Opponents embraced Kenney's proposal.

San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacob, who represents many communities that would be affected by outages, said Kenney's recommendation recognizes "that the current plan is an ill-crafted gamble that would put lives, property and businesses at great risk."

Maintaining that the threat of power lines sparking another fire was the greater risk, Donovan said SDG&E can live with most of Simon's conditions.

However, Donovan said the company is concerned that a requirement to consult the San Diego County Office of Emergency Services before throwing any switches would, in effect, give the county a veto.

"Given that the county has been our most vocal critic on this issue, we're concerned that the benefits of the fire safety plan may never be achieved," she said.

SDG&E, blamed for three of the worst October 2007 wildfires that torched more than 200,000 acres in North County, is seeking permission to turn off electricity in a wide area that includes Ramona, Fallbrook, De Luz, Pala, Pauma Valley, Valley Center and Julian, and outlying neighborhoods of Escondido and Poway.

Company officials say their controversial and sweeping plan would be an effective tool for taming wildfires because in recent years power-line-ignited blazes have accounted for 20 percent of the land torched in Southern California.

Critics say the company would make matters worse.

Kenney tended to agree.

"Elderly and disabled persons may not be able to open their garage doors without electric garage door openers, trapping them in their homes," Kenney wrote. "Evacuations from homes at night will be slower and more difficult without lights. Loss of power to traffic lights and street lights may impede and disrupt evacuations."

And he said the plan actually may increase the threat of wildfire. He said an outage would prompt residents to light candles, lanterns, camp stoves, barbecues and fireplaces, and turn on numerous portable generators.

But Simon noted that SDG&E has proposed several measures to soften the impact, such as transporting people on life-support systems to hospitals, issuing $250 debit cards to low-income and disabled people, and opening evacuation centers for all affected residents. The company also has offered to provide a pool of portable generators for water districts and schools.

Simon proposed approving the plan as a pilot program, under the following conditions:

-- The county Office of Emergency Services and California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or CalFire, would have to consent to an outage.

-- SDG&E would have to give 12 hours' advance notice before turning off electricity. The company had proposed six hours' notice.

-- Outages could last no longer than 24 hours.

-- SDG&E would not be given immunity from lawsuits if something went wrong.

Michael Shames, executive director for the San Diego advocacy group Utility Consumers' Action Network, which opposes the plan, said, "The ALJ clearly got it right. Simon ---- well, he's never been one to say no to SDG&E."

Shames said he anticipates commissioners will adopt a revised version of Simon's proposal that eases conditions.

Valley Center Water District General Manager Gary Arant, another opponent, said he was "encouraged by the fact that, even in Commissioner Simon's decision, he understands the gravity of the situation that can be created by a power outage."

Arleen Velasco, whose San Pasqual Valley home narrowly escaped the 2007 Witch Creek fire, said, "I would hope that they would just say no."

With the recommendations out, SDG&E no longer is saying yes when asked if it will turn off power early next month, if winds become particularly brutal while it waits for the Sept. 10 decision.

"I can't tell you black or white," Donovan said.

She said SDG&E would consult with the county, commission and CalFire before shutting off electricity.

Call staff writer Dave Downey at 760-745-6611, ext. 2623.