LOS ANGELES, April 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the
California Court of Appeal granted
the County of Los Angeles' request
to extend the relocation order and the stay for the residents
affected by the Aliso Canyon well leak, and ordered a new hearing
for April 27, 2016. SoCalGas
issued the following statement in response:
"The Court of Appeal's decision to continue the relocation
program is another setback for the community of Porter Ranch.
It is important to note that the Court of Appeal made no decision
on the merits, and instead sent the case back to the Superior Court
for further proceeding. We look forward to demonstrating
before the court that the air in the Porter Ranch neighborhood has returned to
pre-leak conditions and that there is no evidence that justifies
continued relocation.
"The positions asserted by County of Los Angeles fail to acknowledge the enormous
amount of data collected to date by numerous health and
environmental agencies, including California EPA's Office of
Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, the California Air
Resources Board, South Coast Air Quality Management District, and
the County Department of Public Health itself, all of which support
allowing the people of Porter
Ranch to return home.
"Above all, we hope that the County of Los Angeles will soon provide a clear path
home to residents with sound, fact-based, and scientific
conclusions regarding the air quality in and around the homes in
Porter Ranch.
"In the meantime, SoCalGas continues to take actions to help the
community. Our Customer Resource Center remains open and our
100 community liaisons, along with our Customer Service team,
continue to assist residents who relocated as well as those who
remained at home by providing residue and home cleaning
assessments, and by working tirelessly to process all remaining
reimbursement checks."
About Southern California Gas Co: Southern California Gas
Co. (SoCalGas) has been delivering clean, safe and reliable
natural gas to its customers for more than 145 years. It is the
nation's largest natural gas distribution utility, providing
service to 21.6 million consumers connected through 5.9 million
meters in more than 500 communities. The company's service
territory encompasses approximately 20,000 square miles throughout
central and Southern California,
from Visalia to the Mexican
border. SoCalGas is a regulated subsidiary of Sempra
Energy (NYSE: SRE), a Fortune 500 energy services holding
company based in San Diego.
This press release contains statements that are not
historical fact and constitute forward-looking statements within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. These statements can be identified by words like "believes,"
"expects," "anticipates," "plans," "estimates," "projects,"
"forecasts," "contemplates," "intends," "assumes," "depends,"
"should," "could," "would," "will," "confident," "may,"
"potential," "possible," "proposed," "target," "pursue," "goals,"
"outlook," "maintain" or similar expressions, or discussions of
guidance, strategies, plans, goals, opportunities, projections,
initiatives, objectives or intentions. Forward-looking statements
are not guarantees of performance. They involve risks,
uncertainties and assumptions. Future results may differ materially
from those expressed in the forward-looking
statements.
Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon various
assumptions involving judgments with respect to the future and
other risks, including, among others: local, regional, and national
economic, competitive, political, legislative, legal, and
regulatory conditions, decisions, and developments; actions and the
timing of actions, including general rate case decisions, new
regulations, issuances of permits to construct, operate and
maintain facilities and equipment and to use land, franchise
agreements, and licenses for operation, by the California Public
Utilities Commission, California State Legislature, U.S. Department
of Energy, California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal
Resources, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, California Energy
Commission, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Pipeline and
Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, California Air Resources
Board, South Coast Air Quality Management District, cities and
counties, and other regulatory, governmental and environmental
bodies in the United States; the
timing and success of business development efforts and
construction, maintenance and capital projects, including risks in
obtaining, maintaining or extending permits, licenses, certificates
and other authorizations on a timely basis and risks in obtaining
adequate and competitive financing for such projects; deviations
from regulatory precedent or practice that result in a reallocation
of benefits or burdens among shareholders and ratepayers and delays
in regulatory agency authorization to recover costs in rates from
customers; the availability of electric power and natural gas, and
natural gas pipeline and storage capacity, including disruptions
caused by failures in the North American transmission grid,
moratoriums on the ability to withdraw natural gas from or inject
natural gas into storage facilities, pipeline explosions and
equipment failures; energy markets; the timing and extent of
changes and volatility in commodity prices; the impact on the value
of our natural gas storage assets from low natural gas prices, low
volatility of natural gas prices and the inability to procure
favorable long-term contracts for natural gas storage services; the
resolution of civil and criminal litigation and regulatory
investigations; risks that our partners or counterparties will be
unable or unwilling to fulfill their contractual commitments;
capital markets conditions, including the availability of credit
and the liquidity of our investments, and inflation and interest
rates; cybersecurity threats to the energy grid, natural gas
storage and pipeline infrastructure, the information and systems
used to operate our businesses and the confidentiality of our
proprietary information and the personal information of our
customers and employees; terrorist attacks that threaten system
operations and critical infrastructure; wars; weather conditions,
natural disasters, catastrophic accidents, equipment failures and
other events that may disrupt our operations, damage our facilities
and systems, cause the release of greenhouse gasses and harmful
emissions, and subject us to third-party liability for property
damage or personal injuries some of which may not be covered by
insurance; the inability or determination not to enter into
long-term supply and sales agreements or long-term firm capacity
agreements due to insufficient market interest, unattractive
pricing or other factors; and other uncertainties, all of which are
difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our
control.
These risks and uncertainties are further discussed in the
reports that the company has filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. These reports are available through the EDGAR system
free-ofcharge on the SEC's website, www.sec.gov. Investors should
not rely unduly on any forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof, and
the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise these
forecasts or projections or other forward-looking statements,
whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.
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SOURCE Southern California Gas Co.