On the nine year anniversary of the Alison Canyon gas blowout groups gathered on Wednesday, Oct. 23 to call for closure of the facility by 2027.
Impacted residents and climate advocates gathered a few miles from SoCalGas's Aliso Canyon gas storage facility in the northern San Fernando Valley, the site of the biggest methane and polytoxic blowout in U.S. history in 2015, to call on Gov. Gavin Newsom to direct the California Public Utilities Commission to shut down the facility by 2027.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District has sent notices warning of SoCalGas' use of caustic chemicals that have become airborne.
"I wonder if this is the harbinger of the next disaster at that deteriorating and unneeded facility," said Matt Pakucko, President and Co Founder of Save Porter Ranch.
Activists and impacted community members donned lab coats to show that this is a public health problem. The group offered remarks and encouraged the public to call Newsom's office and demand he honors his promise to the community and direct the CPUC to shut the site down.
The California Public Utilities Commission voted on Sept. 12 to extend the deadline to decide the future of the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility to December.
To get their message heard in Sacramento members of the public have made hundreds of calls and sent emails to Newsom's office since the beginning of October demanding he holds the CPUC to a 2027 shutdown timeline.
"This is a chance for our governor to hold firm to his promises to take on Big Oil and prioritize the solutions California needs, renewable, sustainable energy," said Andrea Vega, Senior Southern California Organizer at Food & Water Watch. "But, it is also his chance to keep his promise to the residents of Porter Ranch, whose lives have been forever changed by the 2015 Aliso Canyon gas blowout and ongoing health issues. It has been nearly a decade since the disaster and Governor Newsom has only walked back this promise. For him to truly deserve the climate legacy he is building for himself, he must shut down this dangerous, polluting facility."
In August 2023, on a 5-0 vote, the CPUC agreed to allow up to 68.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas to be stored at the facility. The previous cap was 41.1 billion cubic feet.