Governor’s Decision on LNG Is Due by
Monday
• Still No Word from Sacramento
With a deadline approaching next
week, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is not yet
ready to disclose what he will do with the Cabrillo Port hot
potato that was tossed in his lap last month.
But legal observers are shaking their heads
and continue to say the governor has no power to approve
the plant, and that even if he gives it a formal OK, the
project’s state and federal applications will both remain
dead.
At issue is the request by Australian
energy conglomerate BHP Billiton to anchor an LNG
receiving and gasification factory ship in the Pacific
Ocean within sight of Malibu’s northern coastline.
Although the $1 billion project was shot down by a pair of
autonomous state agencies last month, federal law still
requires action from the governor.
A spokesman for the governor’s
office, speaking for background purposes only, said this week
that the governor is expected to make a determination at the
end of the 45-day review period, but a formal announcement of
when that may happen has not been made yet.
Even a decision by the governor to do
nothing is an affirmative step, as the federal
government’s Deepwater Ports Act will view that silence
as a pocket approval, one legal expert said.
Under several Byzantine and
conflicting state and federal laws, the state permit
required for Cabrillo Port was killed April 9 by the Lands
Commission, along with the environmental impact
report necessary for construction. Those
decisions cannot be appealed to the governor, and
attorneys say there are no grounds for a court challenge to the
state panel’s judgment that the project is simply
not desirable.
However, BHP Billiton officials continue to
say they are considering their legal options.
Meanwhile, the companion federal approval
process clock is also ticking, even though the federal permit
is stalled after it was unanimously rejected by
the state Coastal Commission April 12. BHP Billiton
has until mid-August to ask the White House to
overrule that decision, as the Bush administration
has the power to revive the federal process.
Lawyers say the governor’s opinion on
the presently dead state permit is due within 45 days after a
federal Maritime Administration hearing that was held
April 4. According to a statement by the governor’s chief
deputy legal affairs secretary, Louis Mauro, on April 10,
that action “is due by [Monday] May 21.”
