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Teen earns awards for work opposing LNG terminal
Oxnard girl started when she was 8
Photo by Rob Varela
At left seated, Shannon McComb, 13, and Owen Bailey laugh as former Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson, right, speaks Sunday at the awards ceremony sponsored by the Los Padres chapter of the Sierra Club.
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Photo by Rob Varela
Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, left, meets with Shannon at the awards ceremony.
As 13-year-old Shannon McComb walked to the podium to accept two environmental awards Sunday, the occasion marked the culmination of four years of work that she began when she was just 8.
Shannon received the Earth Alert Equinox award for environmental activism and the Environmental Hero award for 2007 from the Los Padres chapter of the Sierra Club.
In an awards ceremony at the Topa Tower Club in Oxnard, an audience of about 100 community activists, elected officials, family and friends gave Shannon, of Oxnard, a standing ovation for her role in helping to defeat BHP Billiton's proposal for Cabrillo Port. The $800 million floating liquefied natural gas terminal would have been about 14 miles off the Ventura County/Malibu coastline.
The awards were given to Shannon for her contribution in derailing the LNG project by helping to organize rallies, speaking at community meetings, walking neighborhoods handing out fliers and making hundreds of phone calls to rally community opposition.
"Politicians are always saying they're doing good things for us, but they don't ask us what we want. I want to be a voice for children and for others who can't speak up or who are not listened to," Shannon said as she greeted well-wishers before receiving the awards from Lt. Gov. John Gara- mendi.
'New group of leaders'
"Shannon is a remarkable young woman. She helped focus my attention on the problems of LNG as a fuel source," Garamendi said. "We're blessed with a new group of leaders that will replace those of us that will eventually move on — and they are exemplified by Shannon."
As a member of the State Lands Commission, Garamendi voted against the LNG proposal in 2007, along with commissioner and State Controller John Chiang.
Citing air pollution, public safety concerns and potential damage to wildlife, the California Coastal Commission then rejected the proposal.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had initially signaled his support for the project, but in May 2007, he rejected the company's proposal, which brought the plan to a halt.
During the award presentation, Garamendi also presented an Environmental Hero award of 2007 to Owen Bailey, a Sierra Club activist who lives in Encino. Garamendi told the audience that Bailey laid the foundation and marshaled the resources necessary to defeat the project.
"The multi-year effort to stop this polluting project is a victory for Ventura County and the citizens of Oxnard," Bailey said.
Earth Alert founder and President Janet Bridgers said the fight to stop BHP Billiton's LNG project had seemed almost insurmountable at the beginning.
"When you're up against the world's largest mining company with billions of dollars, it didn't look good," Bridgers said.
Pivotal role
She said Shannon's role was pivotal because she became the voice of community opposition.
"When a very young person stands up in a public hearing and speaks, it cuts through adult cynicism and self-interest because the truth comes out," Bridgers said.
Oxnard Mayor Tom Holden, said that sometimes residents have to point the way for civic leaders.
"This is about how we came together as a community and took a stand. Owen and Shannon helped us step up to the plate," Holden said.
Shannon's parents, Jim McComb and Coleen Gillespie, said supporting Shannon's activism was easy because her schoolwork never suffered.
"We opposed the LNG proposal from the beginning, but it was Shannon who really inspired us," Gillespie said. "She energized us to keep going."
Posted by jimhensley on June 9, 2008 at 7:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Congratulations Sierra Club activist for putting the Equinox Awards together so quickly and so successfully and thanks to all of our elected officials who supported the benefit by attending and presenting their own Certificates and Awards to Ms. Shannon McComb and Sierra Club’s very own Owen Bailey.
Sincerely,
Jim Hensley
Sierra Club Member
hensleyjim@roadrunner.com
805-382-7659
Posted by ebrockway on June 9, 2008 at 8:14 a.m. (Suggest removal)
...and the NIMBY Award goes to...
Posted by bw329 on June 9, 2008 at 9:21 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Thank you for being the reason that gasoline is so expensive. It's your fault that we all have to suffer when there is absolutely NO supply shortage, there is plenty of fuel available. The only thing we lack is enough courage to stand up to people from the Sierra Club and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
Posted by lsgranberry on June 9, 2008 at 12:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)
bw329 it is nice to hear! Our so called environmentalists are more concerned with their petty agendas than with our being good stewards of what God has given us. As usual what started out as a good thing - people not trashing the earth - has turned into an arena for ignorant people to distort what is right and important. They are more concerned with fish and animals that do not exist than with peoples lives and well being. Our rivers are getting wider as our usable land gets smaller while residents pay exhorbatant insurance premiums for flood insurance. California environmentalists ran off the oil companies who are just saying haha to you as they make profits like no others. But I don't think they will ever learn, because there are too many people in high places that don't understand the things of God and playing at the roll of environmentalist.
Posted by unclneal on June 9, 2008 at 12:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
As government forces public (and some private) entities to move away from diesel and gasoline powered vehicles, CNG and LNG are the only available options right now.... so when people oppose LNG and CNG, it places everyone in the position of higher taxes, and higher fuel prices. You see, your kids who take the schoolbus to school or if you ride a city transit bus to work, most of the new ones are powered by CNG or LNG, and the public agency has NO CHOICE in this matter, based on CARB requirements... so we are cutting off our noses to spite or faces... get it? What a ridiculous hyprocracy we are all in right now! Why force cities and school districts to purchase and operate alternate-fueled vehicles and then OPPOSE the fuel??????
Posted by getreal on June 9, 2008 at 12:43 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Thank you Sierra Club for maintaining our high gas prices! Whoo hoo, what an achievement! Maybe when the busses stop working you can drive the kids to school.
Posted by billhayes81 on June 9, 2008 at 8:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)
2008/06/09
It is bad enough that the parents of this 13 year old child flaunt their ignorance. Note the abusive "so called environmentalists" and Democrats that are so eager to pile on! Child abuse and they are proud of it.
Gas at the pumps = $4.40/ gal.
Bill 81.
Posted by chair on June 10, 2008 at 9:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)
My, my, such hostility! FYI, natural gas is MORE expensive than gasoline and, like oil and gas, the price for methane keeps rising due to Asian demand. There is enough known natural gas reserves within the Continental U.S. to meet our needs for 60+ years. For some reason, the gas companies aren't going after it. Then there's the need to pipe the stuff and those pipelines and pumping stations are really expensive, too. Such a short time to gain profits from all that pricey construction.
And there's solar. Here in Sunny Southern, we could build parabolic solar reflector installations providing juice 24/7/365 -- about 30 of them are required to power our entire state and to power all our personal vehicles. Electric vehicles, that is!
So the problem is to time the wear-out of our petrol powered cars and phase in the electric ones in synch with the construction of all these one-mile-square solar reflector plants.
Then we will require NO fossil fuels whatsoever, will be entirely independent of the world power markets, and just might be able to stay out of wars for a generation or two.
The added bonus is no dangerous emissions whatsoever!
So why are you guys so hostile to the Sierra Club and other environmentalists who, after all, only want to see our human race (along with other critters and plants) survive into the future?
Posted by chair on June 10, 2008 at 9:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
My, my, such hostility! FYI, natural gas is MORE expensive than gasoline and, like oil and gas, the price for methane keeps rising due to Asian demand. There is enough known natural gas reserves within the Continental U.S. to meet our needs for 60+ years. For some reason, the gas companies aren't going after it. Then there's the need to pipe the stuff and those pipelines and pumping stations are really expensive, too. Such a short time to gain profits from all that pricey construction.
And there's solar. Here in Sunny Southern, we could build parabolic solar reflector installations providing juice 24/7/365 -- about 30 of them are required to power our entire state and to power all our personal vehicles. Electric vehicles, that is!
So the problem is to time the wear-out of our petrol powered cars and phase in the electric ones in synch with the construction of all these one-mile-square solar reflector plants.
Then we will require NO fossil fuels whatsoever, will be entirely independent of the world power markets, and just might be able to stay out of wars for a generation or two.
The added bonus is no dangerous emissions whatsoever!
So why are you guys so hostile to the Sierra Club and other environmentalists who, after all, only want to see our human race (along with other critters and plants) survive into the future?
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