Opponents Take Aim at Clearwater Port LNG Project

• Mobilization Skills Honed in BHP Defeat Are Expected to Play Key Role •

By Hans Laetz

Malibu and Ventura County residents—for the second time in a week—told state and federal regulators what they think about offshore liquefied natural gas terminals at a pair of hearings Wednesday in Oxnard.

As with a hearing a week earlier and 70 miles away in Los Angeles, the vast majority of people speaking at this week’s sessions opposed the concept of bringing LNG into California waters in general.

The topic this week was an environmental scoping session for Clearwater Port, the NorthernStar Natural Gas proposal to convert a 28-year-old offshore oil rig about 10 miles off the Ventura County coast—35 miles from Malibu—into an LNG facility. A similar hearing was held last week for a separate project by a competing firm: the Woodside Natural Gas OceanWay project that would be anchored in Santa Monica Bay, 21 miles south of Point Dume.

As they did with the Woodside project, regulators called a scoping session to hear views on what environmental yardsticks should be used to measure the impact of the NorthernStar project. Although many comments were made that were germane to that issue, most people used the platform to take a public stand on the project’s overall desirability.

Malibu Mayor Pro Tem Pamela Conley Ulich asked regulators to consider the LNG terminal’s proposed regasification technology to be highly speculative, and gave them a professional journal article that said large-scale use of the technology has not been proven.

“Where’s the proof that this will work?” she asked.

Conley Ulich reminded the hearing organizers that state officials only five months ago rejected the proposed BHP Billiton offshore LNG terminal off western Malibu.

“You are mindful of all the issues you dealt with on BHP Billiton, they still are here,” she said. “We can do better, utilizing things like conservation and alternative fuels. We don’t need to keep relying on this fossil fuel, the dinosaur, this LNG.”

Several persons supporting the Clearwater Port LNG facility bristled at comparisons made by opponents between it and the Cabrillo Port project from BHP that went down to defeat in April.

But Clearwater opponents, who outnumbered supporters at the first hearing by about a 4-1 ratio, emphasized that many of the BHP issues apply.

Malibu resident Diane Moss said current state policy is to use new sources of fossil fuel only as a third choice, after conservation and alternative fuels are employed.

Oxnard resident Nancy Peterson, whose home overlooks the offshore oil platform that would host LNG unloading operations, said her neighbors were promised in the 1960s that the oil platforms would be removed when they reached the end of their life spans.

“I’ve spent four years fighting BHP Billiton and I will fight this one as well,” she said.

Peterson and others noted that several whales have been struck and killed by ships in the Santa Barbara Channel, and that this LNG terminal would increase ship traffic by more than 100 transits a year.

“I find it remarkable that [NorthernStar] took people out to see the whales and listen to their story at the same time that whales were dying as a result of ships,” she said.

Ventura resident Leslie Purcell agreed. “I actually went out on one of the trips to look at the platform. Why have we had two whales in just over one week killed just offshore here? This is a huge deal, the ports of L.A. say they’re going to double their traffic coming in and out in the next few years.”

Lawyers from the Santa Barbara-based Environmental Defense Center said they are concerned about the 28-year-old oil platform, which sits in about 320 feet of water. They asked for research into the possible corrosive effect of a large mound of shells, marine debris and trash that apparently has built up around the oil rig’s legs over the decades.

Company officials have designated several studies about the structural integrity of the oil rig as “proprietary” information, and withheld them from public view. But they stressed that regulatory officials will have full access to these reports, and said the platform will be fortified to meet the strictest government and industry standards.

Camarillo real estate agent Robert Taylor pointed out several differences between BHP Billiton’s proposal and the NorthernStar effort. “I can’t understand why anyone is comparing this to BHP,” he said.

“Please do not let the vocal few convince you that the community does not support this project,” Taylor said. “This is a project designed by Californians for Californians, and this community overwhelmingly supports this project.” Clearwater project manager Billy Owens rose to say, that while Wednesday’s session was for community input, he wanted “to respectfully disagree” that his company’s project is like the BHP Billiton Cabrillo Port effort. Owens noted that his project would comply with local smog rules and use naturally warm air to regasify the LNG.

But Oxnard resident Larry Godwin noted that a massive amount of LNG being warmed from 260 degrees below zero to room temperature will drastically cool moist sea air. “When atmospheric conditions are right, we’re going to end up with a fog bank,” he said. “How often and when? How will it affect commercial shipping?”