Even before the ink was dry on a massive 20-year contract for liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Indonesia to Sempra Energy’s North Baja receiving terminal in Mexico, The Utility Reform Network (TURN), California’s utility watchdog group, filed with state regulators late Tuesday, asking them to reconsider a Sept. 2 decision allowing natural gas from LNG shipments to flow into California from Mexico at a Sempra utility operated receipt point south of San Diego.

TURN made the request to the California Public Utilities Commission in conjunction with a second group, Ratepayers for Affordable Clean Energy (RACE), alleging the CPUC action forces retail natural gas utility ratepayers to “subsidize” Sempra’s corporate push to import LNG by paying for infrastructure upgrades to bring regasified LNG into the Southern California Gas and San Diego Gas & Electric distribution systems. The groups contend a “broad spectrum” of Californians oppose the North Baja project.

“This gas hasn’t arrived here yet, but it already stinks,” said Marcel Hawiger, a TURN attorney. “The CPUC’s proposal not only grants favored treatment to Sempra LNG, it fails to follow the CPUC’s own procedures for granting such special treatment.”

Blaming Sempra partially for the state’s continued “high electricity bills,” the TURN attorney alleged the utility holding company took advantage of the 2000-2001 energy crisis to lock in a lucrative long-term power supply contract with the California Department of Water Resources (DWR).

Hawiger contended that the CPUC has ignored the state Energy Action Plan’s stated preference for energy efficiency and increased renewable energy resources first before the pursuit of major LNG imports, which the consumer attorney alleged only subjects the region to “greater safety and security threats.”

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