I have fought for cityhood, I have fought the county supervisors, I fought sewers, and I fought large commercial development in Malibu. When I learned of the proposed offshore natural gas project, my initial reaction was to hate it with a passion.
I decided to do some research to better fight this thing. Confident that a project of this ilk could not have any good in it, I assumed that there would be plenty of negative information to use as ammunition. To my surprise, however, I learned that there are two sides to this argument.
In my mind, offshore fuel structures automatically conjure up images of the horror stories associated with oil spills. This, however, is natural gas, not oil. I have learned that natural gas is a totally clean and nonpolluting substance. Even though it is liquefied in storage, it quickly reverts to the gaseous state when released. Furthermore, the natural gas industry has an excellent safety record in this country.
I was very concerned that our ocean view would be destroyed by a monolithic structure of such grotesque proportions. The fact is that it will be 14 miles off the coast at the Ventura county line. Most Malibuites will barely be able to see it.
There are those who fear that it will be a terrorist target. But then so is just about everything else. If we let fear of terrorists prevent us from functioning we would soon find ourselves back in the Stone Age. Those of us who are concerned about the environment sometimes tend to think of energy companies as the “bad guys” but we need energy to live. If this project is too hazardous and harmful to be here, then it should not exist anywhere. Since natural gas is the cleanest of the fossil fuels, then storage and processing facilities for other fuels should be done away with altogether. This really would take us back to the Stone Age.
The answer is to work for the development and dissemination of alternative energy sources (solar power, wind, etc.) as quickly as possible. In the meantime we need to do the best we can with what we have and natural gas appears to be “the best.”
I would never presume to tell someone else what to think about this project. All I am saying is that there really are two sides to the question.
George Mathy