BOX 3:
Voices of Opposition Along the LNG Fast-Track
http://www.pacificenvironment.org/articles/voices_lng.htm
By Rory Cox
From February 13 to 18, 2005, Pacific Environment teamed up with several other members of the coalition "Ratepayers for Affordable Clean Energy," (RACE) and organized a road show that we took to communities in California and Northern Mexico that are facing proposed LNG terminals. The spark for this tour was a visit to the West Coast by world renowned West Papuan human rights activist John Rumbiak. West Papau was colonized by Indonesia several decades ago, and has since been turned into a resource colony for the multinational extractive industries. Freeport MacMoran operates one of the world's largest gold mines there, and British Petroleum is now set to develop West Papua's gas fields at a site they are calling the Tangguh project. LNG from Tangguh may come to California via Sempra and Shell's proposed LNG terminal in Baja California, Mexico.
The purpose of this tour was to call attention to all of the impacts that follow LNG as it moves along the supply chain, from its extraction from places like West Papua and Sakhalin, to the danger it poses to our own shores in places such as Long Beach and Baja California. It was an opportunity to bring attention to our call to state lawmakers to hold public, evidentiary hearings on LNG to assess its need, and to examine its impacts. Thus far, the State has refused to have this dialogue.
Below is a diary of the tour.
Sunday, February 13, Interstate 5 - Driving down Highway 5 from my home of Oakland to San Diego is a lesson in California's energy mix. Coming over the Altamont Pass one goes through one of the world's first modern-day windfarms. Moving south through the San Joaquin Valley, I-5 passes hundreds of miles of undeveloped, windswept hills overlooking ag-land. All that wind that could be harnessed! Farther south, one gets a close look at what dominates our energy grid instead: a nuclear plant in San Onofre, and a gas-fired power plant in Escondido.
I made it just in time for dinner at the home of Bill Powers (of the Border Power Plant Working Group), and we were joined by his family and by John Rumbiak. John explained the impacts that resource colonization has had on his family and his culture. The Freeport McMoran mine has destroyed the water and land that the indigenous peoples of West Papua depend on for survival. The impacts have added fuel to the fire of a West Papua independence movement (similar to that in East Timor). The Indonesian government and military have come down hard on the people fighting these projects. Several of John's colleagues have been killed as a result. I learned from John that the Indonesian military only gets about 1/3rd of its budget from the government; the rest comes from businesses, mostly the extractive industries. As the BP gas project is in its formative stages, there is still an opportunity to stop yet another large project in West Papua.
John Rumbiak
Recently, a close friend of John's, also a human rights activist, was poisoned and died while flying on an Indonesian airline. Because of this threat of being killed, John has no plans to go back to West Papau in the near future. In the meantime, he says, his home is a suitcase, as he travels the world spreading the message of human rights abuses on West Papua.
Monday, February 14 - Ensenada - Crossing the border into Tijuana from California is striking, as the poverty becomes readily apparent in the street kids, and in scores of vendors and homeless roaming the streets. Along the northern Baja coastline there appears to be little in the way of land-use regulations. Shanty-towns, trailer parks, new housing developments, industrial projects, power plants, retail outlets, luxury resorts and camping areas all exist side-by-side. I also learned about what the locals call "Narcoco" architecture: Big, gaudy resort hotels that operate as fronts for the drug economy.
We passed by two proposed LNG sites. The remote and unspoiled Coronado Island could barely be made out from the highway. If this Chevron-Texaco project is approved, the island will form a breakwater for a large, floating industrial facility. Scientists are worried that the bright lights and commotion from the project will disturb the abundant wildlife on the island, and that the use of ocean water will suck up much of the area's abundant sea life.
Another 30 miles down the road we passed the new overpass built for access to the Costa Azul Sempra/Shell LNG project. All that exists of this project thus far is a dirt road, which Sempra built despite pending lawsuits in Mexico, and the RACE coalition's appeal of the CPUC decision to approve the rate-basing (http://www.pacificenvironment.org/press/backroom.htm) of parts of the project.
The Baja coast, and a computer model of Sempra's plan for it.
Farther down the road, and visible from the highway, we saw tuna pens out in the Pacific. These are enclosed circles where tuna are thrown in to fatten up largely for the Japanese market. This lucrative project can yield up to $10,000 for a single fish. The operation is run by Mistubishi, with the blessings of the Mexican government. Though tuna and natural gas are very different products, as I would learn at today's forum, to the Baja locals they both represent the takeover of their peninsula by multinational companies.
We arrived at a small theater in Ensenada, and about 80 people filled the room. The crowd was a mix of local media, townspeople, and students. Many of them had heard all this before, and there was a sense of growing frustration at the complaisance of the Mexican government in dealing with the big energy companies.
They nodded in recognition as they heard of the upstream impacts of LNG on Sakhalin Island and on Indonesia. They saw local biologist Alfonso Aguirre's slide show demonstrating the amazing life and beauty of Coronado Island. They heard about the Sempra/Shell project taking over a pristine beach. Our panel sparked a spirited discussion, and the anger in the room at the takeover of Baja by multinationals was palpable. These people have seen poverty in their region grow, and they put the blame squarely on NAFTA, as well as multinationals like Mistubishi who they feel are undercutting their fishing industry.
There's a strong nationalist undercurrent to this anger, and at one point an older gentleman and a young woman came up on stage to unfurl a Mexican flag. The feeling was that the LNG terminals were just another attempt at using and abusing their land, and attacking Mexican sovereignty. Similar discussions in recent months in Tijuana and Rosarita led to large demonstrations, and the shutting down of two other proposed LNG projects.
Tuesday, February 15, San Diego - San Diego is the home of Sempra, an energy giant that owns two major utilities in Southern California. We held a press conference in front of City Hall, and our two high-profile spokespeople were Donna Frye, a city council-person who came very close to being mayor of San Diego, and Deputy Mayor Michael Zucchet.
Donna Frye speaking to the San Diego TV world on LNG.
Like many of our allies in Sacramento and Washington, Frye and Zucchet are concerned with the way haphazard way in which decisions on LNG are being made. Both made calls for the State of California to slow down the LNG rush, and hold public evidentiary hearings on the need and the impacts of LNG. Most of the TV network affiliates were there, as were two reporters from the San Diego Union Tribune. Among the crowd were some local world-class surfers. Among other things, Sempra's LNG project in Baja would ruin one of the region's best surfing wave, known as "Harry's." This is not only bad news for local surfers, but also a loss for the Baja economy, which is largely dependent on tourism.
Wednesday, February 16, Long Beach - This event was a protest near a proposed LNG terminal site in the Port of Long Beach that Mitsubishi has proposed. It was set up by local organizer Diana Mann, who brought in a PA system which we set up in front of the Port Administration Building.
The Port of Long Beach is a daunting industrial complex that not only receives a large percentage of US imports from around the Pacific Rim, but is also an active oil field. Among all the large cranes and container trucks are oil tanks and active drilling rigs. These tanks are well within the fire zone should the LNG terminal ignite. This could very well lead to a chain reaction of explosions, posing a threat to tens of thousands of port workers, and hundreds of thousands of low and working class Long Beach residents. Considering an active earthquake fault runs underneath the port, a growing number of people in Long Beach are quite worried about this project.
Like many of our allies in Sacramento and Washington, Frye and Zucchet are concerned with the way haphazard way in which decisions on LNG are being made. Both made calls for the State of California to slow down the LNG rush, and hold public evidentiary hearings on the need and the impacts of LNG. Most of the TV network affiliates were there, as were two reporters from the San Diego Union Tribune. Among the crowd were some local world-class surfers. Among other things, Sempra's LNG project in Baja would ruin one of the region's best surfing wave, known as "Harry's." This is not only bad news for local surfers, but also a loss for the Baja economy, which is largely dependent on tourism.
Wednesday, February 16, Long Beach - This event was a protest near a proposed LNG terminal site in the Port of Long Beach that Mitsubishi has proposed. It was set up by local organizer Diana Mann, who brought in a PA system which we set up in front of the Port Administration Building.
The Port of Long Beach is a daunting industrial complex that not only receives a large percentage of US imports from around the Pacific Rim, but is also an active oil field. Among all the large cranes and container trucks are oil tanks and active drilling rigs. These tanks are well within the fire zone should the LNG terminal ignite. This could very well lead to a chain reaction of explosions, posing a threat to tens of thousands of port workers, and hundreds of thousands of low and working class Long Beach residents. Considering an active earthquake fault runs underneath the port, a growing number of people in Long Beach are quite worried about this project.
"No LNG" rally in Long Beach.
There were a few police guarding this event. About 25 local activists showed up, most of them holding anti-LNG signs as well as wearing "No LNG Beach" buttons. Notable during this rally were the number of truckers passing us by that honked their approval.
Thursday, February 17, Oxnard - Luckily, the rain that had been promised all week didn't start until today, now that we were done with our outdoor events. In the morning at the Courtyard Marriott hotel in Oxnard was a debate that was organized several months ago by the UC Santa Barbara School of Economics between our own Bill Powers and Republican Assemblyman Keith Richman on the LNG question. This event cost $125 for admission, and attendance was about 400.
The hotel was kind enough to let us use one of their small meeting rooms. I got the sense that they were nervous about having us there, and afraid of a major protest scene. Again, we were well-protected with both private hotel security and a City of Oxnard policeman. Both knew all about the LNG projects, and were steadfastly opposed to them. They told me they were glad we were doing this work, and that we had their full support.
At this point, a pattern emerged: The people in Baja, the truckers in Long Beach, and law enforcement in Oxnard all reject LNG! Given this random sampling of people who are not the usual environmental allies, it becomes clear how we can win this issue. These folks don't trust big oil companies to look out for their best interests, and they are tired of working class towns like their own getting all of the dirty and dangerous industry.
This debate was scheduled independently of our tour, but we used it as an opportunity to piggy-back a post-debate press conference as a way to cover the topics that the debate didn't - namely, the international, upstream implications, the danger to communities, and the fact that the RACE coalition is not taking a 'not in my backyard' approach to one site over another; rather, we're questioning the need for any LNG coming into California. Bry Myown from the Long Beach Citizens for Utility Reform made it clear that her efforts in Long Beach were not about transferring the problem to Oxnard. Rather, we were all in this together.
Our small room was packed with the local media as well as activists from this working class town who, like the folks in Baja and Long Beach, did not want to see their coastline further industrialized. The two projects proposed for Oxnard both involve import facilities about 14 miles off of the coast, near very busy shipping lanes. They also involve pipelines that would run directly through the city of Oxnard.
Friday, February 18, Highway 101 - Today was spent driving home along the scenic, coastal route after this Southern California whirlwind. After years of living in Northern California, where there is no offshore oil and gas drilling, it's disconcerting to look out across the beautiful seascape and see three offshore drilling platforms near Santa Barbara. One of these had a major oil spill in 1969, killing scores of birds and fish, and spoiling popular beaches for years to come. This led to a growing movement against offshore drilling on the West Coast, which lives on today in an offshore drilling moratorium.
LNG is a betrayal of the spirit of the spirit of conservation in California that made the moratorium possible. By fast-tracking these LNG terminals along the coast of California, our state is furthering our dependence on fossil fuels, and the building of large and dangerous facilities along our coastline. What's worse is that by importing LNG, we're moving the very gas production we won't tolerate off of our own coast to places around the world where environmental laws are routinely ignored, and where human rights abuses run amok.
With this tour, our coalition made those connections clear.