In this age of the handout that we seem to be in the midst of -- in which corporate CEOs are paying themselves tens of millions in (non)performance bonuses with government cash our great-grandchildren will be paying off -- it's easy enough to overlook the gouging that customers of San Diego Gas & Electric are about to undergo.

The $2 million in requests that local environmental groups are seeking in reimbursement for fighting the Sunrise Powerlink is the proverbial drop in the bucket compared with the $1trillion the federal government has borrowed in the last few months. But it still seems a bit much that the money will come from SDG&E's ratepayers, who get no say in the matter.

Of course, that $2 million (which would be awarded under a state program that allows "intervenors" to have their costs covered when they fight utility proposals) is still dwarfed by the $125 million SDG&E claims to have spent promoting and developing the Sunrise Powerlink, a cost it intends to pass on to its customers.

So basically, if you use electricity or natural gas, you're being asked to foot the bill for both sides of what was at heart a political argument over whether and where to build a new transmission line from the Imperial Valley to coastal San Diego County.

The primary argument against the proposal was that it is unnecessarily destructive to run high-power transmission lines through undeveloped lands.

Perhaps the folks at the Utility Consumers' Action Network honestly believe that. But when you're asking for $1.2 million for having opposed the project, you must expect to have your motivation called into question. The same would go for the lesser amounts (although all more than a quarter-million dollars) sought by Center for Biological Diversity, the Mussey Grade Road Alliance and Rancho Penasquitos Concerned Citizens.

The argument in favor of the state "intervenor" program is a good one: The utilities have tremendous resources to bring to bear in seeking state regulatory permisision for whatever it is they want to do, which gives them an unfair advantage in the political process.

But the proper way to rectify that inequitable power relationship is to make the utilities eat their costs in promoting new projects.

Actually building the Sunrise Powerlink (which was finally approved by the state, but with a southerly route that bypasses most wilderness areas) is a legitimate business cost, as are the costs associated with designing it.

But SDG&E's expenses in promoting the plan -- from advertising to lobbying -- should come out of the company's profit margin. Take it out of the next quarter's dividends.

And those who are opposed to any particular utility project should do as the San Diego chapter of the Sierra Club did: Find like-minded citizens and pool your resources to fight the utility.

Contact staff writer Jim Trageser at jtrageser@nctimes.com or (760) 740-5408.