Currently, there are no offshore LNG (liquid natural gas) facilities anywhere on earth! But, if two energy companies have their way, there will not only be one, but two, right off Ventura County beaches impacting Malibu, Oxnard, Ventura and Santa Barbara. According to The Herald News, CEO of Weaver Cove Energy Gordon Shearer, said, “I’ve never heard of an off-shore LNG terminal. It’s a technology that is being developed … but it is untested, unproven and non-existent.” So I ask you, do you want to be a guinea pig?
Before you answer, remember, the first onshore LNG facility in America had a major accident, incinerating one square mile of Cleveland, killing 128 and leaving 680 people homeless. The disaster looked like Hiroshima after the bomb.
Subsequent LNG industry spin claimed they had learned from the accident, and said we needn’t worry, such a major accident like that will never happen again. Yet, on Jan. 19, 2004, another devastating LNG accident occurred. This time in a remote Algerian industrial zone, killing 27 workers, seriously injuring 72, and causing approximately $1 billion in damage. It has been reported that the “explosion” was so powerful that it blew out windows and caused fires six miles away.
LNG proponents throughout America, scrambling to salvage their current proposals, as if caught in headlights or the cookie-jar, have advanced an over-simplistic rationalization of the recent LNG disaster; claiming it was merely a boiler malfunction. With very little wiggle-room to work, the latest industry spin claims they have learned from that accident, too, and that we needn’t worry, because the malfunctioning boiler won’t be used anymore.
What can you do to help stop LNG? Send thanks to Oxnard Mayor Lopez, Councilman Zaragoza, and Ventura County Supervisor Flynn for publicly voicing strong opposition to the LNG proposals. More importantly, write letters demanding Malibu, state and federal officials do the same! Those who believe the LNG proposals are absurd and will just go away, must nevertheless appear at public hearings to voice their outrage. Otherwise, your absence will be spun into approval. Please, don’t bury your head in the sand. For more info on LNG, visit the Web site TimRileyLaw.com.
Tim Riley
Consumer protection attorney, Oxnard Shores