Prior to declaring a state of emergency Wednesday over a massive month-long gas leak, California Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown fended off conflict of interest allegations over his handling of the leak.
Some Brown critics suggest the governor’s actions to combat a methane leak in California’s Aliso Canyon have been stymied by the governor’s sister, Kathleen L. Brown. The sister is a member of the board of directors at Sempra Energy, a subsidiary of Southern California Gas Company (SoCal Gas), the company responsible for the leak.
Kathleen Brown was paid $183,000 last year as the director of Sempra Energy, according to a Wednesday report in the Boston Environmental Policy Examiner. She also managed to score $400,000 in stock in the much-maligned energy company, according to financial statements.
Worse still, critics say, is the fact Gov. Brown owes a debt of gratitude to Sempra, as the governor has received more than $100,000 in campaign contributions from his sister’s company.
SoCal Gas owns the natural gas well that has belched out more than 150 million tons of methane since October. Company officials estimate the leak will not be capped until February, or the end of March at the latest.
Gov. Brown held off declaring a state of emergency because doing so would open up government coffers that could pay for the recovery costs associated with the leak, reports the Wall Street Journal. Instead, the governor wanted to give SoCal Gas carte blanche to take up the expense of cleaning the mess and relocating more than 3,000 Porter Ranch citizens.
Brown issued the declaration shortly after the conflict of interest charges began making the rounds, with a Wednesday statement from his office stating that a declaration “directs further action to protect public health and safety, ensure accountability and strengthen oversight of gas storage facilities.”
This comes after state officials declared in December that a state of emergency was not necessary.
A state of emergency declaration also brings with it the prospective of a beefed up energy regulatory presence, wherein it calls for more oversight of California’s gas industry, as well as creating a pastiche of new “emergency regulations” heaped on energy storage operators.
SoCal Gas officials are taking the declaration and its regulatory presence in stride. President and chief executive of SoCal Gas, Denni Arriola, issued a press statement stating the utility company “stands willing and ready to cooperate with the Governor’s office, all state and local officials, and regulatory agencies.”
The state’s environmental activist groups welcomed Gov. Brown’s decision.
“Governor Jerry Brown’s emergency order is both necessary and overdue as it comes on the 79th day since this disaster began,” Alexandra Nagy, an organizer for Food & Water Watch, an environmental advocacy group, told The Wall Street Journal in an interview.
While environmentalists continue to lament the supposed effects the leak will have on the climate, others are not so convinced the leak will cause the kind of damage public officials are predicting.
“Methane is irrelevant as a greenhouse gas. The high per-molecule absorption cross-section of methane (CH4) makes no difference at all in our real atmosphere,” global warming skeptic Dr. Tom Sheahen writes at Watts Up With That, a science-based website.
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