FOCUS | Coastal Nightmares Brewing. Senate Gives Feds Power to Approve LNG Terminal Sites

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FOCUS | Coastal Nightmares Brewing

Sun, 26 Jun 2005 11:30:13 -0700

 

 

FOCUS | Coastal Nightmares Brewing

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/062605X.shtml

 

 

 

 

Editors Comment: As a GOP-controlled Congress moves closer to

creating legislation that would enact George W. Bush's sweeping

overhaul of US energy policy - along his personal guidelines - a

clearer picture of where they are going is emerging. One of the most

noteworthy provisions gives federal regulators authority over local

state governments in deciding where Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)

terminals are built.

 

Traditionally, local opposition on the state level has been most

effective at preventing the behemoth facilities from being built in

environmentally sensitive areas. While this is a 50-state policy and

could affect many regions, the legislation, were it enacted, would

most likely have the greatest impact in coastal states.

 

The favored method of transport for foreign LNG to the US is large

tanker ships that must dock at specially designed seaport facilities.

Construction of such a facility permanently and radically alters the

coast and its surrounding environment for miles around. --ma/TO

 

Go to Original

 

Senate Gives Feds Power to Approve LNG Terminal Sites

By Richard Simon and Miguel Bustillo

The Los Angeles Times

 

Wednesday 22 June 2005

 

Washington - The Senate voted on Wednesday to give federal

regulators authority over the location of liquefied natural gas

terminals, despite objections from governors that states should be

have an equal say in deciding where such projects are built.

 

Republican and Democratic officials from city halls to Capitol

Hill have expressed concern that the terminals could become targets of

terrorist attacks or pose other safety risks, and they have sought a

role in siting them.

 

But President Bush has pushed to put Washington in charge of

deciding where terminals are built, saying that a lengthy approval

process could delay the building of facilities critical to providing

the natural gas needed to fuel the nation's economy.

 

On Wednesday, a majority of the Senate agreed with him. The

lawmakers voted 52-45 against adding a provision to the energy

legislation that would have given governors the authority to veto or

impose conditions on the terminals.

 

As a result, the Senate bill - like energy legislation approved by

the House - would give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission the

final word on where terminals are built, virtually ensuring that the

provision will be included in any final bill that emerges from Congress.

 

The action came as the Senate headed toward approval of a sweeping

overhaul of national energy policy, a Bush priority that has gained

momentum as energy prices have surged.

 

In another action, the Senate rejected, 60-38, a proposal by Sens.

Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., to establish a

mandatory cap on industrial emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for

global warming. The measure garnered five fewer votes than a similar

version two years ago.

 

Republicans criticized a mandatory limit as an unfair burden on

the American economy, and noted that many other large emitters of

greenhouse gases - including China - have not committed to reducing

them. Democrats focused on recent scientific calls for action on

global warming and argued that the United States, the world's largest

emitter of greenhouse gases, had a moral duty to respond.

 

The LNG debate created an unusual alliance, bringing together

conservatives and liberals representing states where terminals have

been proposed.

 

Five terminals are in operation on the East Coast and Gulf Coast.

Dozens of new facilities have been proposed.

 

The terminals, which receive natural gas that has been cooled to a

liquid so it can be transported in large tankers, are projected to

play a key role in the nation's energy needs. LNG now accounts for

about 3 percent of the nation's natural gas use, but it is projected

to rise to more than 20 percent by 2025.

 

The legislation grew out of a legal dispute over a proposed LNG

facility in Long Beach, Calif. FERC said it had sole jurisdiction over

whether the terminal would be built, but California's Public Utilities

Commission challenged that assertion in court. Lawmakers have

expressed concern that such litigation could delay building of the

terminals.

 

Long Beach residents opposed to the proposed terminal

unsuccessfully lobbied the city earlier this month to cut off talks

with developer Mitsubishi, saying they feared that congressional

action could block any future city efforts to cancel the project. But

officials at the city-owned port where the project would be built said

that because Mitsubishi would need a port lease, the port still had

the final say whether the project gets built.

 

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