State Agencies: NO LNG in the LB

Three State Agencies expressed consternation over plans to build a liquefied natural gas facility in downtown Long Beach.

Three of California's most powerful regulatory agencies filed sweeping indictments Thursday of how the Bush administration reached its conclusion that the proposed Long Beach liquefied natural gas terminal would be safe.

On the last day for comment on the project's draft environmental report, the three agencies raised fundamental questions about the safety of building terminals to handle highly flammable liquid gas in populated areas, such as Long Beach, where 130,000 people would live and work within three miles of the site. Two of the agencies called for the report to be rewritten.

"When human error alone makes this risk too large in light of how many people would be in harm's way," the state Public Utilities Commission said in its response, "the added risks of earthquakes or terrorist attacks make this site one of the worst possible sites imaginable."

Indeed some offshore sites seem a better choice should, god forbid, the worst case scenario ever happen.