Lands Commission Ends Public Discussion of Cabrillo Port

The long road to permitting may be drawing to a close for the proposed Cabrillo Port Liquefied Natural Gas terminal.

The California State Lands Commission, SLC, has ended their period of public discussion about the permit. As an ongoing process, the three member SLC board continues to read and review information about the Cabrillo Port project. Australian Mining Company, BHP Billiton, EPA, and the United States Coast Guard continue to make revisions to the project to make it more environmentally appropriate. When asked about the progression in the approval of the project, Steve Green, Press Secretary of Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante stated, “We have to go through a process to determine if this is feasible and can me done in an environmentally safe way.”

This project has to be approved by many agencies before the final okay is given. The United States Coast Guard and the California SLC must approve the project before it can move any further along in the approval process. Calfiornia Coastal Commission Representative, Alison Dettmer, stated that the California Coastal Commission will hopefully be reviewing the project in October, after it has been approved by the SLC, but before it goes to the governor of California for review. Before all is done, the project will also be reviewed by the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. EPA, the governor of California, and the Secretary of Transportation. In regards to the arrival of a final decision of the project, the Attorney for the U.S. EPA’s Region 9, Gary Hess stated, “ a reasonable prediction will be Fall 2006, but its not cast in stone, and we will revisit if reason is given.” We trust that the governmental agencies will review all information concerning the project and have a decision soon.

Related: BHP, Northernstar cite progress on LNG units