LNG terminals planned for Baja, CA

The California Public Utilities Commission, charged with protecting California ratepayers and implementing a sensible state energy plan, is about to deliver ratepayers into the hands of oil companies wanting to hook the state into a dependency on expensive, imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) that comes at the end of a long supply chain over which Californians have no control.

Energy companies have been lining up to push for LNG re-gasification terminals to supply California's huge energy market. But so far, environmental concerns have slowed the siting of these terminals in the state. And so the attention has turned to nearby Baja California, Mexico, where a free-for-all has ensued, leading to the emergence of Sempra Energy as the first to secure a site: Costa Azul, a few miles north of Ensenada.

Sempra wants to locate a sprawling industrial facility on this beautiful bit of unspoiled coastline that is one of the last remaining unbroken stretches of coastal sage scrub in the Californias. This is a marine treasure with a world-class surfing wave, a fishing community and a tourism economy.

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Finally, the question must be asked: why is the CPUC willing to increase California's dependence on foreign fossil fuels and at the same time subject ratepayers to another round of Enron-izing? The answer may have something to do with the Governor.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/041305A.shtml