The Utility Reform Network (TURN), California’s largest utility watchdog group, Friday reached beyond U.S. borders to side with Bolivians revolting against their government, partially in protest to a project designed to export LNG to North America.

TURN issued an appeal for an international consortium which had been aiming to export LNG from Bolivia to help resolve growing disputes between Bolivians and their government that are tied to the proposed LNG export deals. Later on Friday the Bolivian president resigned under mounting pressure, and the vice president moved into power over the weekend.

Going well beyond its usual focus of state and federal regulatory issues involving California investor-owned utilities, TURN’s outgoing executive director, Nettie Hoge, said the consumer group was siding with the Bolivian people, noting that “(California) can’t solve (its) energy problems by purchasing gas that has been, in effect, robbed from other countries.”

At present, however, there is no direct tie of California to Pacific LNG, the consortium negotiating with the Bolivian government on an export deal. A part of San Diego-based Sempra Energy’s LNG plans at one time involved a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed with Pacific LNG in December 2001 to explore supply possibilities from Bolivia for Sempra’s proposed receiving terminal in North Baja Mexico. The MOU expired in August 2002 and hasn’t been renegotiated.

However, Sempra CEO Dave Baum told Wall Street analysts in September that Bolivian sources continue to be the best source (closer, cheaper) for the proposed North Baja plant, and that company officials met just recently with the president of Bolivia in an attempt to get those negotiations re-started (see Daily GPI, Sept. 18).

Bolivia’s president, attempting to quell the uprising early last week terminated a deal for a pipeline to carry the gas through Chile to a proposed liquefaction and shipping terminal on the coast. The fact that the deal involved shipment through Chile over land that was once part of Bolivia sparked as much concern as the proposed export of gas when most Bolivians still have no domestic natural gas service. They use bottled propane for cooking and heating.

TURN alleged in its announcement last Thursday that “California’s reliance on natural gas is fueling a popular uprising in (Bolivia) that has already left many dead and wounded.” TURN characterized the deal as providing $1.3 billion in revenue for the consortium and what it called “a mere $40 million” for Bolivia.

“Pacific LNG has the power to demand that the Bolivian government stop shooting at protestors and the power to negotiate a fairer gas deal for the Bolivian people.”

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