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CPUC votes 5-0 to increase capacity of SoCalGas Aliso Canyon gas storage facility [1]
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Date: 2023-08-31
In a vote that has outraged climate and environmental justice advocates, the five members of California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) today just unanimously approved Southern California Gas’s application to increase the capacity of the notorious Aliso Canyon gas storage facility, the site of the worst gas blowout in California history, to the limit.
Two years ago, the Commission raised the storage cap at Aliso Canyon to 41 billion cubic feet. Today the agency increased the limit to the 68.6 billion cubic feet requested by SoCalGas and San Diego Gas & Electric, both owned by fossil fuel giant Sempra Energy.
The five members of the Commission are President Alice Busching Reynolds, Genevieve Shiroma, Darcie L. Houck, John Reynolds and Karen Douglas.
In a statement issued this afternoon, the CPUC claimed that the vote will “enhance energy resiliency and protect ratepayers in Southern California from potential volatile wholesale natural gas prices this upcoming winter season.
“Today, the CPUC increased the inventory levels of natural gas at the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility up to the safety limit set by the state’s Geologic Energy Management Division to guard ratepayers from the type of natural gas price spikes that occurred last winter,” the agency claimed.
In a concurrent action, the CPUC issued a Ruling on August 29, 2023, that “outlines the steps toward releasing a plan by the first quarter of 2024 to reduce the state’s reliance on Aliso Canyon,” the CPUC argued.
However, Porter Ranch and San Fernando Valley residents, environmentalists and environmental justice advocates strongly condemned the decision.
”This vote is a slap in the face to the community members who have been living with the ongoing consequences of the worst gas blowout in American history,” said Andrea Vega, Food & Water Watch Southern California Organizer, in a statement. “Aliso Canyon poses a significant danger to the health and safety of our communities and is entirely unnecessary to maintain California’s energy reliability.”
She described today’s vote as “a mockery of democracy.”
“Despite the fact that the public comments on Aliso Canyon during today’s meeting unanimously called for closure, the Newsom-appointed Public Utilities Commission ignored the community yet again to side with irresponsible and greedy fossil fuel interests,” she stated. “There can be no transparency in this process when the commissioners make these decisions behind closed doors. Only a transparent process on Aliso Canyon will ensure that those who make decisions that can affect the health of our communities will be held accountable.”
“It is past time for Gov. Newsom fulfilled his campaign promises and shut this dangerous facility down. We are done with empty promises,” she concluded.
“Nearly two million residents of the SFV (San Fernando Valley,” Patty Glueck of Save Porter Ranch tweeted before the meeting. “That's how many people are exposed to the polytoxic chems emitted from Aliso Canyon on a daily basis. Those wells can also be damaged by a major quake or wildfire.”
Discovered on October 23, 2015, the Aliso Canyon gas leak wasn’t plugged until February 18, 2016. An estimated 97,100 tons of methane and 7,300 tons of of ethane were released into the atmosphere during the disaster that caused numerous illnesses and displaced thousands from their homes.
By comparison, the entire rest of the South Coast Air Basin combined, with a population of about 18 million people, emits approximately 413,000 tonnes of methane and 23,000 tonnes of ethane annually. The Aliso gas leak's carbon footprint could be larger than the Deepwater Horizon leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
The vote was made at the same time the International fossil fuel giant Sempra, the parent company of SoCalGas and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), is flexing its political muscles for an end of session push that will raise Californians’ utility bills, according to critics of the controversial corporation.
Sempra is using a shady late session tactic used to avoid scrutiny on unpopular proposals called “gut and amends” in hopes of saddling ratepayers with the costs of building out “unproven hydrogen, biomethane, and carbon capture pipelines and infrastructure,” reported Alexandra Nagy of Sunstone Strategies in a press statement.
“Sempra has long been greenwashing hydrogen, carbon capture, biomethane (or renewable natural gas) as climate solutions, when research on all fronts shows these fuels won’t work to solve the climate crisis but instead will raise utility bills for consumers adding to an already exacerbated affordability crisis for the highest-in-nation bills faced by ratepayers,” said Nagy.
Check out the hydrogen and biomethane/ carbon capture gut and amend language.
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