Dave
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Sempra wins LNG permit!
Reported in the San Diego Tribune today:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
5:51 p.m., April 16, 2003
SAN DIEGO ? Sempra Energy Inc. announced Wednesday that Mexico's Environmental ministry has approved its plans to import and distribute natural gas at
a new plant on the Pacific Coast near the U.S. border.
Sempra said the Costa Azul plant, about 55 miles south of the border, will help Mexico's Baja California region meet demand for energy, which is
projected to grow 7 percent to 10 percent a year over the next decade.
The plant would import 1 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, daily when it opens in 2006. Baja California is expected to need about
half that amount, or 500 million cubic feet a day, when the plant opens.
Sempra, based in San Diego, said the environmental permit marks a "significant step in moving this project forward."
Critics say the plant would damage the environment and discourage tourism.
Sempra said it is the first of several companies to win an environmental permit to build an LNG plant in Baja California.
For those who don't know, Costa Azul is located just south of Bajamar about 25 miles north of Ensenada. This permit is the first of three needed to
begin construction and the supposedly the toughest one to get.
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Stephanie Jackter
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Location: Arizona
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The latest on energy policy re: Mexico
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20030419-9999_1b19...
Court hears suit against power lines from Mexico
By Diane Lindquist
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 19, 2003
The fate of electricity exports from Mexico to the United States hung in the balance in a San Diego federal courtroom yesterday as attorneys argued
whether the Bush administration acted legally in approving border-spanning transmission lines.
The case involves two power plants being built in Baja California, on the outskirts of the city of Mexicali, to supply energy to U.S. electricity
users. One plant is being developed by Sempra Energy International, the other by InterGen.
Construction and operation of the plants falls under the jurisdiction of the Mexican government. But to deliver electricity to the United States,
InterGen and Sempra need U.S. permits to erect the transmission lines to connect the plants to the U.S. electrical grid.
Those federal permits were issued in December 2001, but within months a lawsuit was filed by the Border Power Plant Working Group, Earthjustice and
Wild Earth Advocates.
They complained that the government hadn't adequately evaluated the impact of the plants' emissions on Imperial County's air quality. And they claimed
the companies' plans to use waste water to cool the facilities would deplete the area's scarce water resources and boost salinity in the nearby Salton
Sea.
The outcome of the case could extend beyond the Southern California-Baja California region, U.S. District Court Judge Irma E. Gonzalez indicated. Some
20 power plants are slated to be built along Mexico's northern border to export electricity to the United States.
Together, the Sempra and InterGen plants are expected to send about 1,000 megawatts of electricity to California when they start production later this
year. A megawatt provides enough power to supply 750 to 1,000 households.
Andrew Smith, a U.S. Department of Justice lawyer, argued that the Energy Department needed to consider only the impact of the transmission line
construction, not the impact of the power plants.
"We can't set conditions in Mexico," he said. "It's not our role to get into regulating power plants in a foreign land."
But the judge took issue with limiting the scope of the analysis.
"Are you asking me to ignore the power plants?" Gonzalez said. "How can I do that when the whole purpose of the lines is to deliver electricity from
the plants?"
Smith replied officials did address the plants' impacts and determined that they are "insignificant."
"Once the Department of Energy concluded emissions were below significant levels set by the (Environmental Protection Agency), that was the end of
it," he said. "There was no reason to go on examining a health impact that didn't exist."
Julia Olson, an attorney representing the plants' critics, disagreed.
"Transboundary pollution already contributes to serious health concerns in many border communities," Olson said. "There's no way the Department of
Energy could conclude . . . that the (plants') additional pollutants don't have added accumulative impacts on people in Imperial County."
Both Imperial County and Mexicali already fail to meet the clean air standards set by their respective federal environmental agencies.
Olson also focused on the companies' plans to use Mexicali waste water to cool their plants' operating systems. The practice, she said, will cause "a
permanent reduction of water in the desert" and "a permanent increase in the salinity" of the Salton Sea.
Much of the water will evaporate, but some will be ejected as a high-saline effluent into the New River and flow into the Salton Sea, Olson said.
Federal and local agencies, she noted, are working hard to replenish the inland lake, a vital habitat for rare migratory waterfowl and a tourist draw
for area businesses.
Government attorney Smith countered that the success of those efforts will allow additional saline from the power plants to be put into the Salton
Sea.
Olson also took issue with the way the Energy Department handled the transmission line applications. Under orders from the Bush administration to
speed the process, she said, officials decided to conduct an environmental assessment rather than a more extensive environmental impact statement.
The assessment meant that the public had only two weeks to comment on the Sempra and InterGen applications. Some 400 comments submitted after the
department deadline were virtually disregarded, she said.
Smith said that although the comments were late and were not specific to the legal issues, they were taken into consideration.
Judge Gonzalez said she expects to issue a ruling within a couple of weeks.
If she finds fault with the Energy Department's handling of the permit applications, Smith suggested, she should schedule arguments on the proper
remedy.
Olson, however, said the court should rule that the department acted illegally by ordering an environmental assessment rather than a more complete
impact report and demand compliance with the law. She also said the court should suspend use of the transmission lines.
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JESSE
Ultra Nomad
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How is it possible for these companies to apply for that and the goverment to give those permits when its VERY CLEAR that the land they are intending
to use is RESIDENTIAL and not COMMERCIAL? some bastards in Mexico city are selling us out and Sempra is smiling all the way to the bank about that.
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Margie
Banned
Posts: 270
Registered: 4-23-2004
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LNG
It's not just Mexico City, the City of Ensenada fully backs Sempra, Costa Azul is part of Ensenada. The Mayor and his cronies probably made some kind
of a "deal" and undoubtedly will be able to build more mansions on the hill for themselves. They are the biggest crooks
I've ever seen! Beware!
Ni modo.........!
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