Undeterred by am eleventh-hour cry of concern from a San Diego-area Congressman, the California State Lands Commission unanimously (3-0) voted to okay the California portion of the North Baja interstate natural gas pipeline that will serve two new power plants in Mexico, near the California-Mexican border. This clears the way for the U.S. portion of the project to begin construction in February. Construction in Mexico began last year.

A San Diego Congressman, Rep. Bob Filner, said Wednesday that he has written the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) asking for a rehearing of the commission’s earlier decision to approve Sempra Energy’s joint venture interstate North Baja natural gas pipeline on the basis that new electric generation plants it will serve in Mexico will substantially increase air pollution on both sides of the border (see Daily GPI, Jan. 31). The project sponsors strongly disagree with this contention.

A San Diego-based Sempra spokesperson said he was unsure which developing power plant the congressman was concerned about because the one that an affiliate of Sempra is developing meets all California environmental standards. In any event, the spokesperson did not think this last-minute opposition would slow completion of the pipeline, which is scheduled to begin serving the first of two power plants near Mexicali by the end of this summer.

The congressman, a vocal critic of the merchant generators during the recent electricity and natural gas wholesale price/supply crises in his area, wrote FERC Jan. 25 asking for late intervention. Residents of both San Diego and Imperial Counties in the southern end of California running along the international border “have expressed deep concern at the air pollution that would be created by the (two power) plants,” Filner said in a news announcement Wednesday.

FERC on Jan. 16 okayed the plans of affiliates of Sempra and PG&E Corp.’s National Energy Group to build an 80-mile U.S. segment of the 215-mile North Baja interstate natural gas pipeline f rom the California-Arizona border near Blythe south to North Baja and then westerly along the border to existing power plants south of Tijuana. It will serve two new power plants at Mexicali in North Baja, one of which is being developed by another Sempra subsidiary.

In his letter to FERC, Rep. Filner said the power plant(s) served by the pipeline is what is at issue. A rehearing, he wrote to FERC, should review what he called the “huge air pollution impacts” of the power plants. He called the federal energy department environmental assessment “incomplete,” and asked for a “full-blown environmental impact statement or mitigation measures” to deal with both air pollution and endangered species issues.

“The bottom line is that the plant supplied by the pipeline has not been designed to fully meet California air emission standards,” Filner told the FERC in his letter. Sempra strongly refuted this in regard to its plant. The second plant, which is scheduled to start operations first, is being developed by Boston, MA-based Intergen.

©Copyright 2002 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.