‘No LNG’ Rally Slated for Malibu Pier on Saturday

BY HANS LAETZ

Malibu coastal protection activists are planning a rally at the Malibu Pier Saturday afternoon to publicize their fight against the Cabrillo Port liquefied natural gas terminal, which they decry as an aircraft-carrier-sized factory ship to be permanently anchored on the sunset horizon 16 miles off Zuma Beach.

The rally will come a day after state officials plan to release the long-delayed Environmental Impact Report for the proposed Cabrillo Port LNG project. The report, expected to total some 3000 pages, will address 1400 specific scientific and operational issues raised by scientists, lawyers and Malibu residents since the project was first proposed in 2003.

The 2 p.m. rally will feature activist Keely Shaye Brosnan and State Assemblymembers Julia Brownley, Lloyd Levine, and Pedro Nava.

Various federal and state agencies, in addition to private citizens and environmental groups, have lambasted the LNG proposal for potential damage to local parks, marine animals, and the water and air. BHP Billiton officials have repeatedly said those concerns would be addressed by the environmental impact report that will be released soon.

The company hopes to provide clean-burning natural gas to a California that is anxious to move away from dirtier fuels, such as coal-fired electricity. But environmentalists say the process of compressing natural gas and shipping it halfway around the globe will create more greenhouse gas and pollution than it is worth.

California and U.S. environmental laws require that major projects conduct an EIR to give decision-makers a full assessment of impacts. The laws do not ban construction if negative impacts are found, nor do they require all of those impacts to be mitigated, lawyers said. But the laws do require that problems be addressed by experts.

The first draft EIR was released in 2005, and sent back for extensive revisions after federal and state agencies said it was rife with omissions and errors. A second draft EIR was released last year, and also drew heavy criticism.

Federal officials will take public comment at a hearing April 4 in Oxnard, and will make their decision in Washington some time later. But the key vote will be made by the three-member California State Lands Commission at the conclusion of its special meeting April 9, also in Oxnard.

The California Coastal Commission will hold a daylong hearing April 12 in Santa Barbara and then decide if the proposed terminal will comply with the state’s coastal plan.

After that, permits must still be obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency, which has said it may conduct another round of hearings, given the public uproar over apparent political meddling in the regulatory process (see accompanying story that starts on page 2). More than 12,000 people have registered opposition to the current proposal to give the ship an exemption from smog rules.

If the ship gets all those approvals, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has until May 20 to decide if he will veto it. BHP Billiton plans to start processing LNG and unloading natural gas off Malibu in mid-2010.