Alexandra Nagy (left) and Emmma Aist protest at Southern California Gas Co.’s Ventura Compressor Station.

In 2017, researchers at NASA spotted a plume of methane in the atmosphere emanating from Southern California. The source turned out to be a SoCalGas Co. compressor station in Ventura, prompting outcry from local residents about the “super-emitter” next door.

Gas compressors — part of the system that brings fossil gas from large wells to the customers who use it — are well-known sources of pollution. While gas compressors are typically located away from population centers, the Ventura compressor station is directly across from homes and an elementary school attended by nearly 400 children in a heavily Latinx community already overburdened by pollution.

Despite the health and safety risks posed by compressor stations, Southern California Gas Co. is pushing forward with a new compressor station more than double the size of the original — still across the street from E.P. Foster Elementary School — all in the name of “modernization.” And, strikingly, all of this is happening without environmental review from the state and at a time when the federal Inflation Reduction Act and California’s state budget are funneling historic investments into climate friendly electric homes.

This should signal a sea change for how we’re cooking and how we’re heating our homes.

If all of this sounds puzzling, it should. To make it worse, SoCalGas wants to raise customer rates by over 12% and is using this project, with an estimated cost of $460 million, to help justify increased utility bills for millions of Californians. It’s exactly the kind of project that state leaders and the California Public Utilities Commission should be all over. But, as of now, the commission has no plans to give it the detailed examination it needs. That’s because Sempra Utilities, which includes SoCalGas and San Diego Gas & Electric Co., bundled a rebuild and expansion of its Ventura Compressor Station into an application for a general rate increase for its customers. This maneuver allows the Ventura gas compressor project to slip by with minimal scrutiny — and the company wants it that way.

California has a readily available mechanism to empower state regulators to take charge. The California Public Utilities Commission should require the company to apply for what’s called a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for this project.

While the certificate process has been used for compressor station replacements in wealthier, whiter communities, the commission has thus far failed to act on city and community requests to leverage this tool in Ventura.

In many ways, the Ventura gas compressor is a test of the commission’s mettle and commitment to the agency’s own environmental justice action plan for communities around the state.

Putting the Ventura compressor station through this process will guarantee vital scrutiny; it would require a review under the California Environmental Quality Act. This process ensures impacts to the local community are analyzed and mitigated. It will also require an examination of need and costs for the project, which is particularly important as California is shifting off gas in our homes and buildings.

California is rapidly moving away from burning gas in homes to power appliances — like water heaters, furnaces and stoves — to clean, electric appliances. Goodbye gas, hello clean air.

Burning fossil fuels in homes and buildings generates 560 million tons of climate pollution each year — 10% of total U.S. emissions, according to a Rocky Mountain Institute report. Moving from gas stoves in particular can protect the health of kids, as children who grow up in homes with gas stoves are 42% more likely to develop asthma symptoms, another institute report found. For these reasons, dozens of cities and counties, including those that would be served by SoCalGas’s compressor station, have enacted their own requirements for all-electric new buildings.

To move existing buildings off gas, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently called for the deployment of 6 million heat pumps by 2030. These efficient electric appliances for water heating, space heating and cooling reduce climate pollution and improve air quality. This transformation is now aided by the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides billions in tax credits and direct rebates to install heat pumps and other electric appliances.

The rapid shift away from fossil fuels in our homes means that new gas projects from any utility in California, like PG&E, SoCalGas or San Diego Gas & Electric, should be examined under a microscope. Why waste customers’ dollars on needless expansion of infrastructure for a dirty fuel that’s going away?

Because if it can happen in Ventura, it can happen near you, too.

Careful examination of the need for this bloated project in the context of declining gas demand is exactly what a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity is designed for.

Earlier this year, the California Public Utilities Commission adopted an environmental social justice plan where it committed to addressing legacy impacts of polluting projects in overburdened communities. Now the commission must live up to this commitment and ensure SoCalGas’ latest project isn’t rushed through without a careful look at its cost and impact, both to families who are utility customers in the region and to the Ventura community’s health. And in the wider picture, the commission’s plan should be used to set a high standard for protecting overburdened communities from gas boondoggles.

Sofia Rubalcava is mayor of Ventura, and Matt Vespa is a senior attorney on Earthjustice’s Right to Zero campaign.