Critics hit lawmakers for `gutting' bill to end SoCalGas operations at Aliso Canyon facility
A bill to shut down the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility near Porter Ranch — the site of the massive 2015 gas leak — passed the California legislature after significant amendments dramatically altered it, fueling criticism from residents and environmental activists.
Senate Bill 1486, written by State Sen. Henry Stern, D-Calabasas, was passed by the state Senate Appropriations Committee on May 19. But critics say the changes made by the powerful committee will hurt rather than help those who live near the field where huge quantities of natural gas are stored underground.
“It looks like Sempra got to the bill,” Stern said in a statement.
SoCalGas is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, a firm with $60billion in assets and 18,000 employees.
As it is now, Stern may drop his bill entirely, saying, “Probably (we) won't be moving forward with the bill. But we are still assessing options with our community.”
Andrea Vega, a Southern California organizer with Food & Water Watch, said in a statement: “The Appropriation Committee's amendments to SB 1486 are shameful. But even worse than the Senate leadership's duplicity in gutting this bill is Governor Newsom's complete failure to speak out on behalf of closing Aliso Canyon.”
Vega said “Sempra is a powerful lobby group, and we knew going into this fight that we faced a corporate interest with money to burn and no concern for the people sacrificed to its bottom line. We need Governor
Newsom to take up this fight for the sake of justice and his climate agenda — we can't have either as long as Aliso Canyon is still operating.”
“It was a huge disappointment,” said Issam Najm, a Porter Ranch resident and former president of the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council. “There was no reason for the Appropriations Committee to change the language of the bill.”
He said that “someone had worked on a deal behind closed doors and got the bill modified to a point where it is actually much worse than not having the bill itself.” ban against expanding the controversial Playa del Rey natural gas storage site, which was intended to stop SoCalGas from shifting its gas storage from Aliso Canyon to Playa del Rey, which is also close to populated urban areas.
SoCalGas' Playa del Rey facility stores about 2.6 billion cubic feet of gas underground near residential homes a few miles from Silicon Beach. The Aliso Canyon field holds about 68.6 billion cubic feet of gas.
The amendments to the Stern bill have fueled considerable pushback from environmental groups, residents and others. Dozens of environmental groups had expressed strong support before the bill was altered, including the Westside Clean Air Coalition, Physicians for Social Responsibility — L.A., the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council and the Climate Reality Project.
Marcia Hanscom, one of the founders of the Ballona Institute and a community leader with Protect Playa Now, lives near the Playa del Rey gas storage field. She was stunned when she learned of the amendments.
“It's basically, SoCalGas rewrote it,” she said. “It's not the bill that Sen. Stern wanted at all.” for nearly four months. Then-Gov. Jerry Brown expressed support for closing the facility by 2027. His successor, Newsom, had supported the move along with other lawmakers, including U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Dianne Feinstein, who urged the CPUC to draft a plan to permanently phase out the facility while ensuring uninterrupted utility services.
In 2019, Newsom wrote a letter to CPUC President Marybel Batjer noting he was “concerned that the commission's current proceeding will not yield the fastest and most workable path toward closure of the facility. Further, it may be insufficient to shorten the ten-year timeline for closure outlined in 2017.”
Despite pressure from California leaders, the CPUC voted instead to expand the capacity of the controversial storage field, sparking intense criticism from residents and activists.
Najm, the neighborhood leader who lives near Aliso Canyon, said the amendments made to Stern's bill this month in Sacramento contradict what Newsom said in 2019 when he encouraged shutting down the site before 2027.
Najm called the amendments “completely unacceptable.” He lives within a half-mile of the facility and says he “raised my children in the shadow of this facility. And when (SoCalGas) allowed the well to blow out, they withheld very critical information from all of us about crude oil that was coming out with the gas. I will never forgive them for that. They have lost the right to be a neighbor.”