BHP Billiton Announces Plans to Cut Air Pollution
BHP Billiton announced yesterday that it will redesign its proposed Cabrillo Port LNG terminal to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by over 800 tons per year. The company will use natural gas to fuel all operating equipment and vessels associated with the terminal and will commission new low-emissions tugs for use at the terminal; it also will retrofit tugs on the Southern California coast, even those that would not serve the facility, with cleaner-burning engines. The Ventura County Star reports that a staff attorney with the Environmental Defense center called the announcement “completely uncalled for and inappropriate,” saying revisions to the project should have been incorporated in the revised draft EIR being commented on at public hearings this week. BHP Billiton spokesperson Kathi Hann said that the emissions plans were included in the report, but “maybe not spelled out exactly.” Read more in the Ventura County Star. [Free registration necessary]