Clearwater Port
Another LNG Proposal Shut Down
In 2007, just months after rejection of the Cabrillo Port Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) proposal by Federal and State permitting agencies, Governor Schwarzenegger, and many South Coast communities, NorthernStar Natural Gas--a Texas-based natural gas corporation--submitted a new proposal to construct an offshore LNG terminal in the Santa Barbara Channel. NorthernStar hoped to convert Platform Grace, an active oil production facility offshore Carpinteria and Oxnard, and approximately 3 miles north of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, into a terminal to receive and regasify LNG delivered from overseas.
The project would also involve:
- nearly 300 LNG supertanker trips in and out of the Channel per year,
- construction of floating docks to berth the massive ships,
- new high pressure, subsea gas pipelines from Grace to Oxnard,
- approximately 63 miles of new onshore gas pipeline from Oxnard to Santa Clarita.
Unfortunately, because of its scale and proposed location, many of the environmental impacts associated with the Cabrillo Port LNG project (defeated in 2007) were likely to apply to the NorthernStar proposal, including:
- air pollution,
- impacts to whales and other marine life from underwater noise pollution, artificial lighting and ship strike,
- immense discharge of greenhouse gases and the exacerbation of global warming,
- threats to public safety, and
- impacts to existing uses of the Channel such as commercial fishing, recreation, and scientific research.
In September 2007 EDC was hired by Santa Barbara Channelkeeper (SBCK)to help them evaluate and respond to the Clearwater Port proposal. EDC and SBCK submitted a lengthy list of objectives, along with other comments, on October 17, 2007 which led to the suspension of the application on October 23, 2007. As part of the suspension Clearwater was required to respond to 416 "data gaps." Two years passed and Clearwater still failed to respond. Upon request from EDC, the State Lands Commission terminated the Clearwater Port application on March 10,2010
