The United States could extend its environmental reach into neighboring Mexico if a bipartisan congressional effort launched last week results in new restrictions on natural gas fired power plants developed from this year onward within 50 miles of the U.S. border. Proposed legislation has been offered by a San Diego-based U.S. congressman and the two senators from California to ban the export of U.S. natural gas to plants in Mexico that don’t meet U.S. air quality standards.

The effort is specifically aimed at two new power plants now under construction in Mexicali, only one of which adheres to California’s more stringent air quality requirements. The plants intend to provide electricity to customers on both sides of the border.

Natural gas supplies from the U.S. Southwest are slated to fuel both plants through the new North Baja interstate/international gas transmission pipeline that is slated to start serving one of the Mexicali plants by September this year.

Nearby San Diego-based Sempra Energy companies are involved in a partnership building and operating the 215-mile pipeline from the California-Arizona border and the power plant in Mexicali that adheres to the California emission restrictions. A company spokesperson said the company “voluntarily” is building its Mexicali plant to meet California’s air quality standards.

In issuing permits for the U.S. portion of Sempra’s new natural gas pipeline, U.S. energy agencies concluded that the two new plants combined would not increase pollution “above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-defined ‘significant impact levels’ on the U.S. side of the border.” EPA has questioned that conclusion, however, according to subsequent reports. “It is not unreasonable to ensure that companies making money in the California energy market meet strict environmental standards,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), co-sponsor of the bill. “This measure will protect those living along the California-Mexico border from harmful power plant emissions,” she said in a Reuters report on the issue.

The related gas pipeline and power plant projects, and the general acceleration of energy infrastructure proposals in North Baja within 50 miles of the U.S. border, have escalated concerns on the U.S. side of the border in California, specifically Imperial County in the southeast corner of the state, across from Mexicali. Opposition from local activists and elected officials has persisted.

The developer of the second Mexicali plant, Boston, MA-based InterGen, whose plant will begin operation first at the end of this summer, argued that its facility meets both the Mexican government’s and an international World Bank standard, and that the expanded units of the plant that will be used to send power into California will be “equipped with Best Available Control Technology to reduce emissions,” which the company noted is currently required by state law for plants built in the state. InterGen is a joint venture of Royal Dutch/Shell Group and San Francisco-based Bechtel Enterprises, the large, privately-held international engineering/contractor.

Joining California’s two Democratic U.S. senators in the proposal is a Republican congressman, Rep. Duncan Hunter whose district covers part of the San Diego area, prompting him to conclude that it “makes some common sense to treat the air basin from a binational approach.”

Sempra’s spokesperson stressed the company’s commitment to bringing more natural gas into the growing industrialized region of North Baja California, arguing that it is a more acceptable environmentally clean fuel than the fuel oil burned in older power plants and industrial facilities in Mexico. He verified that construction of the 135-mile segment of the North Baja pipeline in Mexico is 95% complete, and the construction of the U.S. portion is well under way, although not as far along as the longer leg south of the border.

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