July 11, 2025 Breaking News, Latest News, and Videos

Costa Azul Shows California Avoided White Elephants:

White elephant: an idiom for a valuable but burdensome possession of which its owner cannot dispose and whose cost (particularly cost of upkeep) is out of proportion to its usefulness or worth.—Wikipedia

Remember the enthusiasm of Sempra Energy back in 2009, when it had just about finished its $975 million liquefied natural gas importing plant at Costa Azul, on the coast just north of Ensenada, in Baja California?

Almost giddy at the prospect of circumventing many California regulations and bringing LNG to North America from places like Indonesia and Russia, Sempra won approval from Mexican authorities by promising to sell some of the plant’s throughput for use there – and that is happening.

But the San Diego-based company – parent of Southern California Gas Co. and the San Diego Gas & Electric Co. – two of California’s largest utilities – also planned to pipe a lot of that gas north and use it in the San Diego area and perhaps beyond. This hasn’t happened.

For hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of shale deposits in states like Wyoming and North Dakota and Pennsylvania, and soon very likely here in California, drove the cost of natural gas down near modern-era lows and made domestic supplies abundant.

LNG is natural gas frozen at one point and shipped in tankers across vast ocean distances, then rewarmed back into its former gaseous state and placed in pipelines from a receiving terminal.

If the natural gas industry had had its way, the California coast would now be dotted with such receiving plants. They were proposed everywhere from San Diego County beaches to Humboldt Bay and points in between like Ventura County, Santa Monica Bay and Long Beach. None was ever built in California, state authorities becoming convinced after a long flirtation with the idea that there was no need for the costly facilities.

Othere places, like New Jersey and Louisiana, were not so lucky. Costa Azul won approval in Baja after a vetting process much shorter and more easygoing than California’s, with Sempra hoping this would give LNG a backdoor entrée into the wallets of California consumers. Because no Costa Azul gas has moved north, this state’s consumers so far have paid none of the construction costs of either the plant or any of the ships serving it.

Meanwhile, the merits of California’s arduous approval process are now clear. For one thing, a series small earthquakes has broken the main highway running near Costa Azul apart (documented in several videos like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhkkFEVCGnI), even though Sempra reports its plant is unaffected. There is also a land dispute over Sempra’s title to the land at Costa Azul, mentioned as a caveat in offering materials when Sempra sold stock in its Mexican operations last year. And Sempra refuses to say how much of Costa Azul’s capacity is going unused.

At the same time, Costa Azul, like many LNG plants built to receive gas in North America, has turned – at least in part – to shipping it out. One example saw a load of LNG from Indonesia reshipped to Great Britain under a one-time permit from Mexico’s energy agency.

So far, the only customers for Costa Azul’s gas are 20 industries in Baja California, including one local electric utility.

But while most U.S. receiving LNG facilities are being flipped for export of gas derived from fracking, that’s hardly likely to be a major use for Costa Azul, since no pipeline now exists for bringing fracked gas there.

All of which makes Costa Azul fit the classic definition of a white elephant – a fate that likely would also have befallen at least some of those other LNG plants once pushed in California, had they ever been built.

Which proves that sometimes it can be just plain better not to build, a lesson not lost upon opponents of California’s planned high speed rail project and the massive water tunnels proposed by Gov Jerry Brown.

in Opinion
<>Related Posts

SM.a.r.t.Column: Happy Fourth of July 

July 2, 2025

July 2, 2025

SMart (Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow) hopes you are enjoying a great 3-day weekend as part of your...

SM.a.r.t Column: Cities That Never Shut Up – The Roaring Cost of Urban Noise

June 26, 2025

June 26, 2025

In today’s cities, silence isn’t golden—it’s extinct. From sunrise to insomnia, we’re trapped in a nonstop symphony of shrieking car...

SM.a.r.t Column: Santa Monica Needs to See the Light

June 19, 2025

June 19, 2025

How Santa Monica’s Growing Light Pollution Is Eroding Human Health, Safety, and Sanity There was a time when our coastal...

SM.a.r.t Column: California’s Transit Death Spiral: How Housing Mandates Are Backfiring

June 15, 2025

June 15, 2025

California’s ambitious housing mandates were supposed to solve the affordability crisis. Instead, they’re creating a vicious cycle that’s killing public...

SM.a.r.t. Column: A City Dying by a Thousand Cuts

June 5, 2025

June 5, 2025

Santa Monica, once celebrated for its blend of coastal charm and progressive ideals, is slowly bleeding out — not from...

SM.a.r.t Column: Oops!! What Happened? And What Are You Going to Do About It?

May 29, 2025

May 29, 2025

Our Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow (SMa.r.t) articles have, over the past 12 years, collectively presented a critical...

SM.a.r.t Column: Why Santa Monica Might Need a Desalination Plant, and Maybe Even Nuclear Power

May 22, 2025

May 22, 2025

Santa Monica is known for its ocean views, sunny skies, and strong environmental values. But there’s a challenge on the...

SM.a.r.t Column: SMO (So Many Options) Part 3: “Pie in the Sky”

May 17, 2025

May 17, 2025

SMO: Fantasy, Fact, and the Fog of Wishful ThinkingBy someone who read the fine print Every few months, a headline...

SM.a.r.t. Column: Owner Occupancy Protects Against Corporate Over-Development

May 2, 2025

May 2, 2025

This week SMa.r.t. will have as guest columnist Mark Borenstein. Mark is a long-time Santa Monica resident, a retired attorney,...

Opinion: Declaration of Economic State of Emergency in Malibu & Pacific Palisades: A Direct Result of the Devastating Impact of the Palisades Fire

April 27, 2025

April 27, 2025

Malibu and Pacific Palisades Request Emergency Financial Measures By Ramis Sadrieh, Chairperson, Malibu Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce    On behalf...

SM.a.r.t Column: The World’s Happiest Cities

April 27, 2025

April 27, 2025

Almost every year, we see new cities, regions, and countries that make the list(s) of our planet’s happiest and healthiest...

SM.a.r.t Column: A City for Everyone

April 20, 2025

April 20, 2025

Santa Monica dazzles with its ocean views, sunshine, and laid-back charm. But beyond the postcard image lies a more complicated...

SM.a.r.t Column: Part II: Rebuilding Resilient Communities: Policy and Planning After the Fires

April 13, 2025

April 13, 2025

The January 2025 wildfires that devastated Pacific Palisades and Altadena left an indelible mark on Los Angeles County. Beyond the...

SM.a.r.t Column: Innovative Materials for Fire-Resistant Rebuilding After the LA Fires

April 6, 2025

April 6, 2025

In the aftermath of the devastating 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, homeowners face the daunting task of rebuilding their lives and...

Opinion: Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath Community Column Regarding a More Accountable Homeless Services System

April 3, 2025

April 3, 2025

By Lindsay Horvath, Los Angeles Board of Supervisors This week marks a significant milestone in our fight to end homelessness...