Environmental Watchdogs Say New Data
Indicate LNG ‘Bubble Has Burst’
• Groups Draw Attention to Federal and
State Reports that Downplay Need for Projects Off Local Coast
While two liquefied natural gas projects
off the distant Malibu coast wend their way through the
bureaucratic approval process, their critics say
these, and any other projects, are not needed, as the
“LNG bubble has burst.” Talk of LNG as the
transition fuel on the path to cleaner energy is said to
have run its course, the critics add.
Members of California’s clean energy
coalition, including Pacific Environment,
Columbia Riverkeeper, Santa Monica
Baykeeper, and Citizens Against LNG, have
been in the forefront of the charge against new LNG projects on
the West Coast.
A coalition of these
organizations opposing dependence on foreign
liquefied natural gas, called Ratepayers for
Affordable Clean Energy, or RACE,
responded this week to two new state and federal
reports that it says contain energy projections that show
“the LNG speculative bubble is over.”
In a statement released Monday, RACE cites
U.S. Energy Information Administration
data that “natural gas imports will decline
rapidly from 16 percent today to only three
percent in 2030.” It says, according to this data,
the difference will be made up in increased domestic
natural gas production.
RACE adds that, according to a staff
presentation from the California Public
Utilities and Energy Commission, the state’s
natural gas demand “will remain flat until 2030, while
the one LNG import terminal serving California, located in
Mexico, will not receive ‘significant
deliveries.’”
“These projections make clear that
the West Coast does not need LNG,” said Rory Cox,
California program director at Pacific
Environment and RACE coordinator. “LNG was
an inappropriate choice to begin with, and it remains so.
We’re ready to put this debate behind us, and join the
[Barack Obama] Administration in building a
truly clean and sustainable energy future.”
“What a difference a year
makes,” added Dan Serres, the conservation
director at Columbia Riverkeeper. “These new
projections are a game changer. LNG is now off the table as a
wise investment choice. The current LNG proposals are
now just moving forward under nothing but their own
momentum.”
Since 2004, RACE has vigorously opposed new
local LNG projects because it says they would
increase local greenhouse gases, undercut
development of clean energy, and endanger the health and safety
of West Coast residents.
The coalition maintains, as it did during
failed efforts to build the Cabrillo Port processing facility
off Malibu, that “despite the industry hype,
imported LNG has never been necessary on the West
Coast of North America.”
RACE emphasizes that the conclusions are
based on “trends in the domestic natural gas industry, on
steadily declining natural gas consumption in
California since 2000, and on new laws and
initiatives in the state, such as mandated energy efficiency
programs, the renewable portfolio standard, and
the Global Warming Solutions Act.”
RACE also has repeatedly noted that
natural gas demand in Baja and the Pacific Northwest is
low, which it sees as an indication that LNG projects in these
areas are viewed as “back doors” into
California’s energy market.
