Cabrillo Port Critics Hold Briefing Before Key Hearing

BY ANNE SOBLE

A coalition of concerned residents and members of the Malibu Chamber of Commerce, Malibu Association of Realtors, Sierra Club and other organizations has scheduled an LNG briefing this Thursday at Malibu City Hall to prepare for next week’s critical California State Lands Commission hearing on subsea pipelines for the controversial Cabrillo Port project.

The local briefing will take place in the Malibu City Council chambers on the ground floor at 23815 Stuart Ranch Road, starting at 6:30 p.m.

The State Lands Commission meeting is set for Monday, April 9, starting 10 a.m. at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center at 800 Hobson Road. A 5 p.m. session will take additional testimony.

The three-member panel will vote on two 21-mile long, 24-inch diameter pipelines to transfer liquefied natural gas to Southern California Gas Company’s existing natural gas transmission system from the nearly 1000-foot-long, 214-foot-tall floating storage and regasification unit proposed by Australian mining behemoth BHP Billiton.

Commission members include the chair, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, and State Controller John Chiang. Chief Deputy Director of the Department of Finance Anne Sheehan regularly sits in for DOF Director Michael Genest.

Cabrillo Port would be the first industrial use in local coastal waters and could remain in place for up to 40 years, if approved after going through the steps of a convoluted state/federal bureaucratic process that critics say has been purposely designed that way.

In addition to safety and environmental concerns (see story on page three) critics point to visual impact on an unspoiled coastal vista. Opponents have put an image of what the vessel might look like from a Zuma Beach vantage point on the website www.ProtectMalibu.com.

The briefing organizers have issued a call for public participation, saying, “Attend our meeting and find out what you can do to help,” adding that “it is crucial that as many people as possible attend the [CSLC] meeting to show the commission that you oppose this LNG terminal.”

Also against Cabrillo Port are: the California Coastal Protection Network; the Malibu City Council; the Oxnard City Council; the Oxnard School District Board of Trustees; the Oxnard PTA Council; the City of Port Hueneme; Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky; Assemblymember Julia Brownley; State Senator Sheila Kuehl; the Sierra Club; the Natural Resources Defense Council; the Environmental Defense Center and other environmental organizations.

No organization or group in Malibu has publicly expressed support for Cabrillo Port, despite a local Billiton advertising campaign on the project’s behalf and what appears to be a small number of individual proponents.

For additional information about the Thursday briefing, call 310-528-7543.