Environmental Impact Statements

The company backing a $750-million natural gas terminal in Long Beach Harbor filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to revive its project after officials in that city terminated it last month. Sound Energy Solutions, a partnership of ConocoPhillips and Mitsubishi Corp., filed a writ of mandate in Los Angeles County Superior Court that seeks an order to compel the Long Beach Harbor Board of Commissioners to direct its staff to complete an environmental impact report on the project.

In a victory for the massive Playa Vista housing complex, the Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday not to require the builders to perform a costly, time-consuming environmental review on the first phase of the project. The 12-1 vote was somewhat unusual because the councilman who represents the area, Bill Rosendahl, wanted more analysis done. It was the second time the council had spurned Rosendahl's wishes on the matter.

A federal judge on Friday overturned Bush administration regulations for national forests that critics said expedited logging and energy exploration, weakened wildlife protection, and shut the public out of forest planning. U.S. Northern District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton, based in San Francisco, found that because U.S.

The growth blueprint for San Bernardino County, which projects a 25% increase in population by 2030, fails to adequately assess the effects of increased greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants, California's attorney general alleges in a lawsuit seeking to have the plan thrown out. In a suit filed Thursday in San Bernardino County Superior Court, Atty. Gen.

A long-planned subdivision on Elephant Hill above El Sereno may face another delay after the City Council voted Wednesday to require the developer do another environment impact report. A report for the project was completed in 1992. The office of City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo argued that the report still stood, but Councilman Jose Huizar pushed for a new report, citing potential landslide problems. The project is one of several controversial developments planned in the northeast hills of the city.

Declaring the projects' environmental studies flawed, critics urged the Oxnard Planning Commission this week to reject proposed housing and business developments in order to protect Ormond Beach wetlands. At a public hearing late Thursday, nearly two dozen residents cited concerns about increased traffic and pollution that the two projects would generate along Hueneme Road, southeast of Oxnard.

A state appeals court Thursday ordered a halt to construction on the estimated $1.1-billion final phase of the Playa Vista development, ruling that the project's environmental impact report was flawed.

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon pledged again Tuesday to require Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills to do an environmental report before undergoing a major expansion. In a news conference at City Hall, Alarcon said he supports the expansion but believes the report is needed to protect the surrounding community in the northeastern San Fernando Valley from traffic and other effects.

The latest proposal to develop a liquefied natural gas terminal off the coast of Ventura County begins a crucial process today as regulators hear from the public about which issues to consider during an upcoming environmental review. The $600-million Clearwater Port terminal, proposed by Houston-based NorthernStar Natural Gas Inc., would convert an oil platform about 11 miles offshore from Oxnard to receive and process up to 1.

A new environmental report for the controversial construction of 12 mansions in rustic Silverado Canyon was approved Tuesday by the Orange County Board of Supervisors, but opponents promised another court challenge that could delay the project again.