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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

VICA, Other Groups Oppose Moratorium on Natural Gas Hookups

Business opposition is mounting to a proposed three-month moratorium on new commercial natural gas hookups in Los Angeles County, with a vote by the state Public Utilities Commission set for Thursday. The Valley Industry and Commerce Association, or VICA, has written a letter to the commission, as well as the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, Southern California Gas Co. and the Los Angeles County Business Federation have all filed comments opposing the moratorium. The PUC last month proposed the moratorium out of concern that a shortage of natural gas could occur in cold weather because of the sharply curtailed capacity at the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility near Porter Ranch. Aliso Canyon has long been the largest natural gas storage facility in Southern California. But a massive natural gas leak spewed from the facility between October 2015 and February 2016, leading to widespread illness complaints from nearby residents and prompting many to flee. When the facility reopened last summer, it was only allowed to operate at about one-third of its 80 billion cubic-foot storage capacity. State regulators became even more concerned about natural gas supply reliability after a report late last year on the distribution network operated by Southern California Gas Co. revealed numerous outages at various points in the network. The report recommended a moratorium on all new residential and commercial connections; the PUC narrowed that to industrial and commercial accounts. In VICA’s letter, signed by Chairwoman Lisa Gritzner and President Stuart Waldman, the Valley organization said the moratorium could result in higher costs if commercial developments have to use only electricity. “Preventing new usage of gas will directly impact future industrial and commercial development – eliminating customer choice for energy service, increasing energy costs and creating economic hardship,” the letter stated. Tracy Hernandez, chief executive of the business federation, said that according to Gas Co. records, the moratorium would halt applications for roughly 700 new or expanded business operations throughout L.A. County until April at the earliest, forcing thousands of potential employees to either wait months to start their jobs or lose those job opportunities entirely. The PUC is set to vote on the moratorium at its monthly board meeting Thursday at its San Francisco headquarters.

Joel Russel
Joel Russel
Joel Russell joined the Los Angeles Business Journal in 2006 as a reporter. He transferred to sister publication San Fernando Valley Business Journal in 2012 as managing editor. Since he assumed the position of editor in 2015, the Business Journal has been recognized four times as the best small-circulation tabloid business publication in the country by the Alliance of Area Business Publishers. Previously, he worked as senior editor at Hispanic Business magazine and editor of Business Mexico.

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