Paper: Pay for your own Security Mitsubishi!

The Long Beach Press Telegram editorializes that the Mitsubishi-Sound Energy Solutions LNG terminal should pay its own security costs:

A new report from Long Beach's fire chief, Dave Ellis, and deputy police chief, Tim Jackman, drives home that point. The two officials visited Boston Harbor earlier this month and observed extensive security precautions, many of which would have to be replicated if an LNG terminal were to be built in Long Beach.

The extra security measures in Boston aren't paid by LNG terminal operators or shippers. The considerable cost of extra police officers, boat escorts, divers, helicopters, and other equipment and labor associated with Boston's LNG transportation are borne by taxpayers.

LNG shipping in Long Beach would be somewhat different than it is on Boston, because there tankers must travel upriver close to the downtown area. Tankers are escorted through a three-mile "safety zone," which is cleared of all ships, and traffic is stopped on overhead bridges.

Tankers in Long Beach wouldn't come as close to homes and offices as they do in Boston. However, as Ellis recently told the Press-Telegram, a Long Beach LNG terminal would be a "high-profile target" for terrorists, probably more so than Boston, because the port is larger. A successful attack would cost untold billions in economic damage nationwide.

A terrorist attack on an LNG tanker is a worst-case scenario, but when it comes to security, police and fire officials must plan for the possible, not just the probable. An LNG terminal would have to be afforded the highest security precautions.

Taxpayers subsidize the goods movement industry enough already. In general, the public and their lawmakers should demand that the industry pay more of its own cost of doing business. And if the Long Beach port does decide to support an LNG terminal, it must ensure that the true costs are paid by the business itself, not shifted to taxpayers.

That's fair enough, since it is the only on-land LNG terminal proposed in California. Others, like the Cabrillo Port, have avoided soaring security costs by locating offshore.