Posted on 11/29/2002 2:08:21 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Energy plants face Baja backlash
Dumping ground feared by residents
By Diane Lindquist
STAFF WRITER
November 29, 2002
TIJUANA – Rich or poor, well-connected or disenfranchised, many people in Baja California are increasingly united by a common fear: that the area is becoming a dumping ground for giant industrial complexes that will supply energy to California.
Two electricity power plants are under construction and four more are planned by 2010. At least five energy companies are competing to erect liquefied natural gas re-gasification facilities between Tijuana and Ensenada.
"Why don't they put these plants on the other side?" asked Humberto Cervantes, a homeowner in the upscale Las Playas de Tijuana. "I'm concerned about what will happen to my family, my kids."
In recent meetings, academics, local officeholders, homeowners and leaders of ejidos, or communal neighborhoods, plotted strategies to halt the proliferation of projects by some of the world's largest energy companies – Marathon Oil, Shell, ConocoPhillips, ChevronTexaco, InterGen and San Diego's Sempra Energy.
The companies argue their projects are vital to sustaining development on both sides of the border. They say that electricity power plant emissions are well below levels allowed in Mexico and contend that the dangers associated with liquefied natural gas facilities are rare and exaggerated by the projects' opponents.
Baja California residents say the ventures pose risks of pollution, ecological damage and explosions. They describe the plants as industrial monstrosities that will spoil ocean views for residents and for tourists who spend money along the coast.
Some of the companies are beginning to listen.
Marathon Oil spokesman Paul Weeditz acknowledged that his company has concentrated on working with government officials to design its huge energy complex. But soon, the company will turn its attention to residents.
"We would hope once the community has the opportunity to learn (about the venture) . . . they would agree it is a project much needed for the development of the region," Weeditz said.
Consider meetings over the past month:
In Ensenada, the city's intelligentsia and academic community told Sempra Energy that its liquefied gas project at Costa Azul will destroy unique vegetation on the pristine coastal plateau and harm marine life offshore.
In Las Playas, more than 100 residents packed a small civic center to object to the liquefied gas plant that Marathon plans to build at La Joya, just beyond the neighborhood's southern boundary. Opponents of the project gathered more than 1,000 signatures in a petition drive in the suburb.
In Rosarito Beach, leaders of ejidos gathered with a federal congressman and city council members from the state's municipalities to discuss how to influence the process.
As the public mobilizes, political maneuvering is increasingly evident.
Federal deputy Jaime Martínez Velóz and the city council members who met in Rosarito Beach are members of opposition parties. The National Action Party of President Vicente Fox favors the projects.
Martínez Velóz, a member of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), said he will seek an emergency resolution revoking Marathon's permit. And he vowed to give Baja California residents a bigger role in decision-making.
"Companies are coming in here telling us there won't be any problems. These are lies," Martínez Velóz said. "People are organizing against these projects, but their voices are being blocked."
The growing movement in Baja California might have unexpected clout.
In recent years, Mexico has made public comment part of the formal approval process for decisions involving such projects. The problem is, people aren't always notified.
When the Mexican Energy Commission accepted Marathon's liquefied natural gas application Oct. 4, for example, it automatically opened a two-month period for public comment. But at the recent Playas meeting, residents were unaware of it.
They also didn't know the full extent of the project, which the company describes as "the most efficient energy center in North America." It includes a re-gasification facility, storage tanks and a pier, an electrical power plant, a waste-water treatment plant and a desalination plant.
"Personally, we don't even want to hear about the benefits. We don't think it's appropriate," said Gabriela Johnston, an organizer of the Las Playas meeting. "I don't think the residents of La Jolla or Coronado would want to hear about the benefits, either, if this kind of project were being built there."
Las Playas knows the power of the public's role in Mexican decision-making.
In 1992, its residents banded with environmentalists and persuaded then-President Carlos Salinas de Gortari to revoke an operating license for a toxic-waste incinerator that already was under construction.
Since then, public protests against projects requiring government approval have become more common.
In August, a group of machete-wielding farmers forced President Fox to cancel plans for a new international airport on Mexico City's eastern outskirts.
Marches, lobbying and petitions in Rosarito Beach apparently influenced a recent federal decision to deny plans for a re-gasification plant on the resort community's northern outskirts. The matter is pending.
They emphasize that they are pouring money into the economy at a time when foreign maquiladora manufacturing firms are leaving the state.
Building an electricity power plant can cost $300 million or more. Liquefied natural gas re-gasification complexes typically require investments of half a billion dollars. Marathon expects to put $1.5 billion into its La Joya complex.
Sempra has the biggest presence of any energy company in Baja California. It has built three natural gas pipelines: One delivers natural gas to industries and residents of Mexicali; another delivers it to the Presidente Juarez electricity complex at Rosarito Beach; and the largest brings natural gas from Arizona to northern Baja California.
Mention of the company's name, however, sparks strong criticism among some residents of Las Playas and Rosarito Beach.
At a recent meeting, one woman said Sempra promised to donate money and supplies to schools and hospitals but never did. A basketball court was the only thing built, another resident added.
Sempra officials say they have helped the community and done what they promised and more, including contributions to a new Tijuana library; an industrial engineering laboratory at an Ensenada tech school; homes for domestic-violence victims and homeless boys in Mexicali; and money for the film "Ocean Oasis," which focuses on conservation in the Gulf of California.
Diane Lindquist: (619) 293-1812;
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The usual suspects on the left are organizing against any progress out of the middle ages. If people prosper there will no one to "protect". Unique vegetation? Pristine coastal plateau? Offshore marine life? Ever heard those phrases before?
California could have a real significant shortage of electricity if PNW hydro ever gets in short supply again and their loads pick up because the economy of California picks up. Yes, indeed they could be in short supply. But, given Gov Davis budget problems, I am sure that the legislature will increases taxes and pass various kinds of anti-business laws so that the California economy will take quite a while to pick up. That should make energy supplies last a while longer.
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