Elected officials and environmental groups urged Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday, Aug.15 not to back a powerful state agency’s plan to dramatically boost the capacity of SoCalGas’ controversial Aliso Canyon underground gas storage facility near Porter Ranch.
At a State Water Resources Board meeting in Sacramento on Aug. 15 dozens of residents, politicians and environmental activists spoke against a proposal to increase the underground gas field’s limits, during a contentious hearing at which the board voted to extend operations at three other controversial sites — natural gas plants in Huntington Beach, Long Beach and Oxnard.
“If California can’t keep these commitments to build out local clean energy to shut down gas plants, it’s no wonder the state has no imagination or will to shut down Aliso Canyon,” said State Sen. Henry Stern (D-Los Angeles), whose district includes Porter Ranch.
Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo, who represents Porter Ranch and other communities in the western San Fernando Valley, said that “recent proposals to prolong our dependence on natural gas and increase underground storage near communities that still navigate the health impacts of the past disaster take us in the wrong direction.”
The future of Aliso Canyon wasn’t up for a vote on Tuesday. But activists nevertheless urged Gov. Newsom to shut down the massive gas field near Porter Ranch, which in 2015 became the site of a devastating gas leak, after releasing nearly 100,000 metric tons of methane into the air and forcing residents in the San Fernando and Simi valleys to relocate for months.
The underground facility is made up of vast underground sandstone reservoirs where SoCalGas can store billions of cubic feet of natural gas, and it is one of the largest in the nation.
Chirag Bhakta, California Director of Food & Water Watch, said at the hearing, “Any expansion at Aliso Canyon is an insult to the thousands of community members whose lives were, and continue…
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