Ensenada officials based legal actions on allegations Sempra bypassing safety and environmental reviews

[Hans Laetz, Newsgroup Editor]

By Roberto Garduño and Enrique Méndez, La Jornada En Linea newspaper
Translated by Hans Laetz

MEXICO CITY, DF - The transmational corporation Sempra used a last-
ditch legal effort in Mexican federal courts to keep its Costa Azul
operating in the face of local officials who said they had documented
proof of wrongdoing in the plant's installationa and operation.

Last week, the mayor's office of the port city of Ensenada, through
its Department of Urban Management, issued a technical and legal
opinion that alleges multiple local law violations, ranging from
faulty environmental impact assessment and feasibility permits to
allow construction.

The city's finding prompted the company to seek a temporary
restraining order against the proposed closure of the LNG plant at the
federal Tenth District , which is an indirect appeal against the
closure of the regasification plant. The legal representative for the
multinational company who filed the action is Jorge Eduardo de Hoyos
Walthe, the nephew of former Baja California Gov. Eugenio Elorduy
Walther, who originally approved the project.

To date, the municipal authority has determined that there is
sufficient evidence to show that Sempra has violated its laws of land
use and protection, Treasury Police regulations and endangered the
surrounding populations and the ecosystem of the region with the
regasification plant.

The reaction comes after this newspaper revealed the accumulation of
legal violations that have been formed around the installation and
operation of the regasification plant. Such information, which has
been documented extensively, it is now classified by Sempra as media
campaign orchestrated by political groups against a company that has
invested millions of dollars in Mexico.

Nevertheless, the city maintains that Sempra has committed substantial
illegal acts as basic as leaving a buffer zone to ensure the safety of
surrounding populations and the ecological environment.

The city charged that, in the middle of 2002, a prior city council and
PAN mayor Antonio Catalán Jorge Sosa failed to participate in the
preparation of a technical review to determine whether the application
of the transnational to install the plant met minimum public safety
standards and Mexican environmental laws. ecological preservation.
Feasibility and land use, permits were granted without review by city
officials in 2002, in clear violation of Baja California laws.

Systematic irregularities with the Ensenada building codes were
overlooked by the panista mayor [editor's note: panista means a member
of PAN, a pro-business political party that has sionce lost the
mayor's office in ensenada, but still hiolds the governor's office].

PAN Mayor Catalán Sosa was assumed by th ecompany to be the only
permitting authority, bypassing the city council. Sempra Energy thus
won permits to build the plant on August 12, 2003.

The newspaper found two building permits for Costa Azul: granted in
late October 2004. But Ensenada does not have any operation or
emergency plans from the plant [editor's note: the LNG terminal is
highly-guarded and sits next to the only major freeway linking
Ensenada to the rest of Mexico. It is about 12 miles from downtown
Ensenada, which has a population of about 400,000].

As a result, the local government has seen no identification of
environmental impacts caused by development or activity during the
stages of the project, as well as measures to prevent or mitigate the
impacts of the construction or operation of the project.

The city also notes that the plant has moved twop large natural gas
storage tanks, and plans to build two more.