USCG Suspends Approval Process for New LNG Project

With eyes on more than 400 environmental and safety concerns, the U.S. Coast Guard officially stopped the clock last week on the approval process for the liquefied natural gas (LNG) project planned for the southern stretches of the Santa Barbara Channel. A proposal from Texas-based NorthernStar Energy to convert the Platform Grace oil rig — some 10 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara and directly adjacent to the boundaries of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary — into an LNG facility had been on a fast-tracked review process that could have seen the Clearwater Port project approved as soon as next June — until now, that is. In a letter sent directly to NorthernStar on October 30, the Coast Guard, in conjunction with the U.S. Maritime Administration, put an indefinite halt to the 240-day approval process, pending additional review of the project. The Clearwater Port project comes in the immediate wake of the soundly defeated BHP Billiton Cabrillo Port LNG plan. Shot down by a perfect storm of opposition this past spring and denied by the State Lands Commission, the California Coastal Commission, and Governor Schwarzenegger, the Cabrillo plan — a proposed floating terminal offshore from Oxnard — also had its project clock stopped by the Coast Guard during its approval gauntlet so that similar air quality, water quality, and actual energy demand issues could be addressed. Contracted by Channelkeeper to do the bulk of the legal and scientific heavy lifting in the fight against Clearwater is the Environmental Defense Center (EDC), which also played a key role in the Cabrillo denial. Specifically, concerns reportedly focus on the prospect of Clearwater running massive supertankers — sometimes twice a day — across international shipping lanes, around oil rigs, and through the waters of the marine sanctuary, not to mention fundamentally undermining the purpose of the sanctuary itself. Also of concern is the concept of converting an old oil rig into an LNG facility, a move which would extend the life of the platform by at least 30 years. For its part, NorthernStar representatives reportedly claim their plan, which aims to ship LNG to the rig and then turn it into vapor before sending it ashore via an underwater pipeline to Mandalay Bay in Ventura, is superior to the defunct Cabrillo plan and stands a much better chance of winning approval. [Source: http://www.independent.com]