I respectfully disagree with the editorial opinion of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in a recent Ventura County Star encouraging support for the proposed Cabrillo Port LNG floating regasification facility offshore from Malibu and Oxnard. He is right that we must transition to sustainable fuels and cleaner renewable energy sources, including solar, wind, and biofuels. And we must conserve.
Mr. Kennedy rightly points out the environmentally destructive consequences of fossil fuel production, and describes nuclear energy as “the most catastrophically expensive fuel source ever conceived.” While natural gas is a clean fuel that most of us have in our homes and use on a daily basis, his concession that the LNG facility he would have us support must be “properly sited and constructed” is the key, and, I believe, leads to precisely the opposite conclusion with respect to Cabrillo Port.
BHP Billiton’s proposed Cabrillo Port proposed floating regasification platform is a new, novel, and totally untested technology, with no track record anywhere in the world on safety or environment impacts. Malibu is the closest landfall to the proposed platform, and Malibu families would likely be the first to experience any disaster, including explosive risks and air contaminants that are blown onshore.
Mr. Kennedy’s conclusion that the ecological footprint of this proposed facility is preferable to the public health threats from burning dirtier fossil fuels is a false choice. Energy conservation is a choice. An accurate audit of what California’s true long-term energy needs are is a choice. Assessing the environmental impacts in the correct on-shore air district that will live with the impacts is a choice. Subjecting this project to the highest possible level of environmental review and scrutiny is a choice. Including in the environmental review the impacts of production of the LNG that would be taking place in Australia, far from the reach of California’s environmental oversight, is a choice.
My first and highest priorities are protecting the health and safety of the residents of the 41st Assembly district. I have not yet seen any evidence that this contemplated project would be able to satisfy either test.
Julia Brownley
Assemblymember 41st District