Fear and Loathing in Ventura

Today, the Ventura County Star tries to put the fear of...trial attorneys...into its readers over the prospects of LNG.

Tim Riley is a marked man.

Operators of a liquefied natural gas plant in Everett, Mass., not only know of the Oxnard lawyer leading the charge against LNG but have watched his video that shows a plane flying into a tanker in a manipulated image of terrorism.

Industry representatives in Loui-siana, Texas, California and anywhere else there's LNG know he argues that a vapor fire could extend at least 30 miles and, in areas like Ventura County, could kill 70,000 people.

But maybe it didn't have to...people have already bought into their lies.

Al De La Cerda sits in an open garage after work, tipping a can of Bud Light and mulling over nightmares: earthquakes, terrorism and ruptured pipelines.

The natural gas that fuels his anxiety would come ashore about 2.5 miles from his four-bedroom home at the edge of a strawberry field. The pipeline would likely follow Hueneme Road, a half-mile from this South Oxnard neighborhood of working-class homeowners...

"We're the ones," he said, "who would die first."

Were I Al, I'd be more worried about what those around me were doing after having a Bud Light than the risks of LNG--one is much more destructive, especially if involves a Sara Lee delivery truck.