Just months after unanimous rejection of the Cabrillo Port Liquified
Natural Gas (LNG) proposal by Federal and State permitting agencies,
Governor Schwarzenegger, and many South Coast communities, NorthernStar
Natural Gas, a Texas-based natural gas corporation, has submitted
a new proposal to construct an offshore LNG terminal in the Santa
Barbara Channel. NorthernStar hopes to convert Platform Grace, and
active oil production facility approximately 12 miles west of Oxnard
and 3 miles north of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary,
into a terminal to receive and regasify LNG delivered from overseas.
The project will also involve :
*nearly 300 LNG supertanker trips in and out of the Channel
per year,
*construction of floating docks to berth the massive ships,
*new high pressure, subsea gas pipelines from Grace to Oxnard,
*approximately 63 miles of new onshore gas pipeline from Oxnard
to Santa Clarita.
Unfortunately, because of its scale and proposed location, many
of the environmental impacts associated with the Cabrillo Port
LNG project are likely to apply to the NorthernStar proposal,
including air pollution, impacts to whales and other marine life
from underwater noise pollution, artificial lighting and ship
strike, immense discharge of greenhouse gases and the exacerbation
of global warming, threats to public safety and impacts to existing
uses of the Channel such as commercial fishing, recreation, and
scientific research.
Consequently, EDC is conducting legal and scientific analysis
of the NothernStar proposal on behalf of its client, Santa Barbara
Channelkeeper, a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection
and restoration of the water quality and marine environment of
the Santa Barbara Channel.
Proposed by Australian-based, multinational mining and resources
corporation BHP Billiton, the Cabrillo Port proposal comprised a
1000 foot long floating LNG storage and regasification terminal
offshore LA and Ventura Counties. In partnership with numerous regional
organizations and south coast communities standing in solidarity,
EDC helped defeat the Cabrillo Port proposal in May of 2007. EDC's
legal and scientific analysis identified numerous environmental
impacts from the proposal, including significant and illegal impacts
to regional air quality, endangered marine mammals and birds, and
global climate change. This analysis, along with research from the
CEC and RACE Coalition demonstrating how the proposed supplies were
completely unnecessary, helped sink Cabrillo Port at the State Lands
Commission, the California Coastal Commission, and at the Governor's
office. Click to access all of EDC's formal submittals, expert comments
and testimony, and fact sheets on the Cabrillo Port.
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