Congressman Sherman Responds to Reports of Potential Power Outages in Los Angeles

Sherman Oaks, CA – Congressman Brad Sherman, who lives in the Porter Ranch community, site of the largest gas leak in U.S. history, responded to reports that the Los Angeles basin may experience power outages if the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility remains offline:

“There is a political dance happening here.  I am concerned that SoCalGas may use these reports to build a case for business-as-usual operations with minimal safety improvements.

“Before we even consider injecting more gas back into Aliso Canyon, all 114 wells in the facility must be thoroughly tested and sub-surface safety valves must be installed. 

“Additionally, no one facility should be too big to fail. 11 million customers in the Los Angeles region should not be reliant on one facility for electrical and gas service.

“We cannot have just an energy reliability plan. We need a safe energy reliability plan. We cannot consider injecting new gas into Aliso Canyon until there is a mandatory plan to spend many hundreds of millions on safety – and until we know that the cost will be borne by the shareholders of SoCalGas, not consumers.”

-30-