Channelkeeper and EDC team up on LNG proposal

ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Standing on East Beach in Santa Barbara with oil platforms dotting the horizon behind them, representatives from Santa Barbara Channelkeeper and the Environmental Defense Center announced they are teaming up to rigorously evaluate a proposal to convert one of those oil platforms into a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal.
NorthernStar Natural Gas, Inc., initiated the application process in June for Clearwater Port, their moniker for a project that proposes converting Platform Grace into a terminal that would bring in about 140 LNG tankers annually and ship out 1.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas every day.

The oil platform, built in 1979, is located due south of Carpinteria and 12.6 miles from Oxnard, where undersea pipelines would pump gas across the Santa Barbara Channel after it is converted from its liquid form at the offshore terminal. Channelkeeper and EDC officials said the project poses a wide array of environmental and safety concerns — from heightened risks of converting an aging oil platform to increasing threats to whale populations.
"People are only starting to understand the significant safety risks that exist when natural gas is supercooled into LNG," Kira Redmond, executive director for Channelkeeper, said yesterday. "It is during the transition back from that forced liquid state into its natural gaseous state that the greatest risk for a catastrophic accident occurs."
Redmond also pointed out that the highly flammable material, when in its gaseous form, prompted the Government Accountability Office to list LNG terminals as ripe terrorist targets, adding that the U.S. Coast Guard is not prepared to protect them or deal with an attack or serious accident.
Linda Krop, chief counsel for the EDC, outlined key environmental concerns, from both a global climate change standpoint and local air quality, marine wildlife and water pollution viewpoints.
"One of our gravest concerns pertains to migrating whales and other important species that rely on this area for protection and survival," Krop said. "The Clearwater Port project would be located a few miles from the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary and National Park, with LNG ships going right through the Sanctuary. We're supposed to be providing a safe haven for these animals, not putting them at greater risk."
Three blue whales died in the channel in the span of a month this year, officials confirming a ship strike killed two and is highly suspected in the third death.
NorthernStar officials said they are dedicated to creating a safe, state-of-the-art terminal that will have the least amount of impact on the local environmental and public safety possible. On their project website, they point out that no maritime LNG incidents have occurred in the past 40 years that have resulted in a major spill or injury, despite more than 40,000 ocean voyages during that time span.
"Clearwater Port has the resources and expertise to build and operate a safe, environmentally sound clean energy terminal that Ventura County and California need," NorthernStar President Paul Soanes said in a statement on the company's website.
Their June 30 application for a Deepwater Port License outlines construction of two floating mooring stations that would allow two 1,000-foot tankers to berth at the same time, replacement of the current platform deck and installation of a high-pressure pipeline to the Reliant Energy plant at Mandalay Beach.
NorthernStar officials expressed confidence that they will be able to meet stringent environmental and safety requirements, something the recently defeated Cabrillo Port LNG project failed to do earlier this year, going down at the hands of two state commissions and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger over air pollution issues.
"Clearwater Port will meet or exceed all federal, state and local safety and environmental requirements — which we look forward to demonstrating during California's and the federal government's rigorous and thorough public review process," NorthernStar CEO William Garrett said in a prepared statement. "We are committed to a transparent process and are engaging the local community to forge meaningful partnerships with individuals and organizations."
Although the project will have to be reviewed by 17 different federal, state and local authorities, including the U.S. Coast Guard, California State Lands Commission, California Coastal Commission and Gov. Schwarzenegger, Krop said the environmental review is a "fast-track process under federal law."
"Despite [the] complexity, and the controversial nature of the project, the review period for an LNG proposal is extremely short," she said. "Environmental review must be completed within 240 days after the application is deemed complete."
This puts a tremendous burden on the community to address concerns about the project, she said, but added that the EDC has already filed comments based on NorthernStar's application and are preparing to analyze the draft Environmental Impact Report when it comes out during the next few months.
Clearwater Port is one of a dozen proposed LNG terminal projects along the Pacific Coast of North America, including four in Southern California and four others in Oregon. According to a New York Times article, the United States receives about a quarter of its energy from natural gas. That figure could increase to a third of national energy consumption within the next 20 years, inevitably requiring an increase in LNG shipments to the United States, which currently has five LNG terminals in operation but close to 40 proposals in the review pipeline.