Liquefied Natural Gas

Ventura County's air quality board on Tuesday dealt a setback to a proposed $800-million liquefied natural gas processing plant that would be moored about 14 miles offshore between Oxnard and Malibu. The Air Pollution Control District board voted 9 to 0 to oppose a key permit that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is preparing.

An Australian company announced Thursday it had suspended its plan to build a controversial offshore liquid natural gas terminal 27 miles from Los Angeles International Airport, citing the downturn in the world economy. A spokeswoman for Woodside Natural Gas said the company planned to bring the project back when conditions changed. "Woodside's in this for the long haul," said Laura Doll, the company's vice president for public and governmental affairs.

Plans for new liquefied natural gas terminals in Massachusetts and Texas won federal approval on Thursday. An LNG project in Rhode Island was rejected as regulators said they tried to balance energy needs with public safety. It was the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's first such rejection. Seven other projects have been approved since 2003. Commissioners approved the Weaver's Cove Energy project for Fall River, Mass., by a 3-1 vote.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's campaign for a $243-million telephone users tax has received a major contribution from an unlikely source -- a Texas oilman whose company could see a windfall from one of the mayor's environmental initiatives. Proposition S, which is on Tuesday's ballot, took in a $150,000 contribution last week from billionaire T. Boone Pickens, the co-founder of Clean Energy, which bills itself as the nation's largest supplier of liquid natural gas.

After four years of scrutiny, Long Beach officials Monday pulled the plug on a controversial energy project that promised an abundant new source of clean-burning liquefied natural gas for California but posed insurmountable safety concerns. In a unanimous vote, the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners decided to end an environmental review of the project that was launched more than two years ago but had slipped far behind schedule.

The first liquefied natural gas plant in California will likely become a reality in a few years as utility companies look for ways to meet a growing demand for energy while keeping costs down, the president of the state Public Utilities Commission said Friday.

California officials and environmental groups are gearing up to battle the federal government over who has the authority to approve the construction of liquefied natural gas terminals in the state. The fight has been brewing for months but intensified Wednesday when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission declared itself the sole authority over the siting and construction of LNG terminals, including a proposed facility in Long Beach.

An influential business coalition has hired Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's favorite political consultant to mount a $1-million public relations blitz touting the benefits of liquefied natural gas. The pro-LNG offensive being planned by consultant Mike Murphy has the earmarks of a campaign for public office, relying on advertising, polling, focus groups and other tools of the political trade.

Despite opposition from state officials, the prospects have improved for a proposed $700-million liquefied natural gas terminal that would be built at the Port of Long Beach. The Long Beach City Council has no immediate plans to take a stand on the project. And local opposition has dwindled in recent months.

The Long Beach City Council decided Wednesday to continue talks with the developer of a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal at the city's harbor, although none of the nine council members appears to decisively favor the plan. In the early morning vote, the council split 5-4, divided between those firmly opposed to the $450-million gas facility proposed by a Mitsubishi Corp. subsidiary and those who want to wait for an environmental review before taking a stand.

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.

Woodside Petroleum Ltd., an Australian oil and gas processor, said it would use U.S.-flagged vessels and American crews for a planned $1-billion liquefied natural gas facility in Southern California. Woodside is the first gas company to make such a commitment and its proposal "will become the primary focus of our agency," said Sean Connaughton, head of the U.S. Maritime Administration. Based on legislation passed last year, proposed facilities that commit to using U.S.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday vetoed a proposal to build a terminal for importing liquefied natural gas 20 miles off the coast of Malibu, but he kept the door open for future LNG projects if they are environmentally sensitive. "California needs to diversify fuel sources for California consumers with cleaner alternatives such as LNG," the governor said.

As environmentalists cheered a state agency's rejection of its project, Australian energy giant BHP Billiton was left scrambling Tuesday for a way to salvage its plans to build an $800-million natural gas processing plant off the Ventura County coast.

Following an all-day public hearing that drew hundreds of opponents, a state commission voted Monday to reject the environmental impact report on a proposed $800-million floating liquefied natural gas terminal off the Ventura County coast -- an action that could effectively kill the project. The state Lands Commission voted 2 to 1 to reject the environmental study and not issue a lease for the BHP Billiton project. Democratic Lt. Gov.

THE DECISION OVER whether to build an $800-million liquefied natural gas terminal 14 miles off the coast of Oxnard is a difficult one. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger supports it; Pierce Brosnan does not. The staff of the State Lands Commission has recommended approval of the idea; their counterparts at the Coastal Commission disagree. Depending on how you look at the proposed plant, it would be either remarkably clean or untenably dirty; vital to California's energy needs or extraneous.

A comprehensive study released Friday on a natural gas processing plant that would be built in the ocean about 20 miles from Malibu concludes that the project poses substantial environmental and safety concerns for the California coast. BHP Billiton, one of the largest energy companies in the world, wants its $800-million terminal to become the portal through which California receives natural gas from Australia.

The Long Beach City Council is poised to vote earlier than planned on a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal, spurred on by criticism that council members have avoided taking a stand on the plan for more than two years. The vote is shaping up as a referendum on the safety and economics of the terminal, which could be the first onshore LNG terminal on the West Coast. It comes amid mounting public concerns nationwide about the safety of building such terminals in urban areas.

The chairman of an Assembly committee that heavily influences California's energy policy announced Saturday that he now opposes construction of an $800-million natural gas processing plant in the ocean about 20 miles off Malibu. Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys) said he would fight a terminal proposed by BHP Billiton, one of the largest energy companies in the world, because "it's an environmental problem for the coast."

A comprehensive study released Friday on a natural gas processing plant that would be built in the ocean about 20 miles from Malibu concludes that the project poses substantial environmental and safety concerns for the California coast. BHP Billiton, one of the largest energy companies in the world, wants its $800-million terminal to become the portal through which California receives natural gas from Australia.