
Pierce and Keely Brosnan voice their opposition to the proposed liquefied natural gas terminal off the coast of Malibu/Oxnard.
By Ward Lauren /Special to The Malibu Times and Laura Tate / Editor
An outdoor screening of “An Inconvenient Truth,” former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary on global warming, at Bluffs Park Friday evening will kick off the campaign of the nonprofit California Coastal Protection Network, or CCPN, to raise public awareness of the legal effort to oppose the anchoring of a liquefied natural gas terminal 14 miles off the coast of Malibu and Oxnard.
The screening will be attended by a number of local resident celebrities who oppose the LNG project, Cabrillo Port, proposed for Malibu’s coast, including Pierce Brosnan, who will give an introduction to the film.
“The film is very close to my heart,” Brosnan said in a telephone interview Monday. “What Al Gore has done is deeply commendable, for all our sakes.”
The film being screened was chosen specifically because its subject-global warming and its catastrophic potential for earth’s future-is one of the many negative environmental conditions that would be exacerbated by the LNG facility, said Susan Jordan, director of the nonprofit network CCPN. Liquid natural gas is a fossil fuel that produces both carbon dioxide and methane, known as greenhouse gases, she said.
Australia’s BHP Billiton, the largest mining company in the world which is proposing the LNG facility, is awaiting approval of an air quality and water discharge permit for the project from the Environmental Protection Agency, a contentious subject among critics.
Environmentalists say the project does not meet Clean Air Act requirements, and that the EPA dropped its demand for strict controls on emissions from the project after the company contacted the White House Task Force on Energy Project Streamlining.
“One of the biggest concerns is that it [the LNG facility] is not being held to the same air quality standards as other offshore facilities,” Brosnan said. “If the air quality permit is issued in its current form, Los Angeles and Ventura [air quality] will suffer greatly.”
Brosnan’s wife, Keely Shaye, echoed her husband’s concern.
“It is worrisome that the White House is playing a key role in approving support [for the LNG air quality permit],” Keely Shaye said, pointing out Los Angeles’ renown for air pollution, and asthma in children and adults.
The proposed floating deepwater LNG terminal would be three football fields long and 14 stories high, visible from Malibu to Oxnard, according to information posted on the CCPN’s Web site, www.coastaladvocates.com. It would receive and store LNG, a highly flammable liquid gas, from tankers that would arrive two to three times a week, the Web site states.
According to the California Energy Commission, LNG is natural gas that has been refrigerated to minus 259 degrees Fahrenheit “at which point it becomes a clear, colorless, and odorless liquid.” The LNG will be converted back to its original gaseous state by being pumped through eight regasification units, using a heat exchange system. After regasification at the proposed Cabrillo Port, the natural gas would then be piped inland through a 22.2-mile underwater pipeline to Oxnard, where it would connect with the existing Southern California Gas Company pipeline system.
“I’ve noticed that BHP is calling the terminal a natural gas ‘transfer facility’ now, as if there’s no industrialization or processing,” Jordan said. “The fact is they [will] extract it, process it, ship it and then regasify it. All of that means a lot of emissions of gases that contribute to global warming.”
BHP Billiton officials have said that the company is taking steps to reduce smog-causing nitrogen emissions, including powering the Cabrillo Port facility and all vessels used in federal waters with natural gas instead of diesel, as well as putting cleaner burning and more fuel efficient engines in a commercial vessel operates close to Ventura, Oxnard, and Los Angeles county shorelines.
“The decrease in NOx [nitrogen] emissions anticipated by this repowering project will exceed the Cabrillo Port NOx emissions,” the company states in its literature.
Opponents to Cabrillo Port voice other concerns, such as the safety of the project.
A 2004 Congressional Research Report states that “LNG tankers and land-based facilities could be vulnerable to terrorism. Tankers might be physically attacked in a variety of ways to destroy their cargo-or commandeered for use as weapons against coastal targets. LNG terminal facilities might also be physically attacked with explosives or through other means.”
However, BHP Billiton has said such an attack is very unlikely.
“Before a permit can even be granted, Cabrillo Port must have a detailed security plan approved by the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,” the company’s literature states.
It further states that if a “small boat” was somehow to sneak through and attack Cabrillo Port, there would be no impacts on land and that an explosion from an attack would “ignite the LNG, creating a fire that would burn within an almost two-mile radius of Cabrillo Port.”
But if the LNG was not ignited immediately, “a vapor cloud could form and travel downwind for six to seven miles before dissipating.”
However, if the cloud meets an ignition source, a fireball could erupt, say critics.
The 2004 Congressional Research Report states that a resulting “pool fire” from an ignited LNG spill is “intense, burning far more hotly and rapidly than oil or gasoline fires. It cannot be extinguished-all the LNG must be consumed before it goes out. Because an LNG pool fire is so hot, its thermal radiation may injure people and damage property a considerable distance from the fire itself. Many experts agree that a large pool fire, especially on water (due to heat transfer), is the most serious LNG hazard.”
Coastal Advocates’ current campaign to stop BHP began with a mailing to 5,000 Malibu residents earlier this month calling on them to learn the facts and support the program. It stated that a series of public forums would be held in which citizens can voice their concerns.
In addition to other actions, CCPN is encouraging those opposed to the project to sign a petition asking Gov. Schwarzenegger to veto the project.
“The important part of our program is that it is really targeting the governor,” Jordan said. “He has expressed support for the terminal in the past, so it’s all about telling him to stop. If you see our postcards and our T-shirts, they’re asking him to ‘Terminate the Terminal.’ He is the only one who has the authority to do so.
“Some people tell me he has said he doesn’t have the authority. Well, we’re here to tell him that he does; he has a clear legal authority under the Deep Water Port Act. He doesn’t have it on an onshore terminal, but he does on an offshore one.”
Pierce Brosnan, summing up his opposition to and concern about the Cabrillo Port project, said: “Having been a resident for 23 years, the landscape is near and dear to my heart … to our hearts. I think before we lie down and roll over … we have to challenge what they’re going to do to our environment.” Friday’s event is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., with the movie screening at 7:30. While the screening is free, donations will be accepted, Jordan said. A sponsorship pre-reception will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the Michael Landon Center for which a $250 minimum contribution is suggested.
Among the resident celebrities who have so far signed on in support of CCPN’s program are, in addition to the Brosnans, Barbra Streisand and James Brolin; Roma Downey and Mark Burnett; Mary Steenburgen and Ted Danson; Eloise and John Paul DeJoria; Rhea Perlman and Danny DeVito; Lyndie Benson and Kenny G; Tom Hanks; Jane Seymour and James Keach; Malgosia and Stacy Keach; Kelly and Ron Meyer; Janet and Martin Sheen; Trudie Styler and Sting; Michelle and Dick Van Dyke, and Suzanne and Hans Zimmer.