Tom Elias has Change of Heart on LNG

Columnist Tom Elias, a longtime opponent of importing Liquefied Natural Gas into California seems to be coming around.

Federal officials are now in the midst of their legally required 60-day periods for soliciting public comments on permits for emissions of both air pollutants and wastewater from a huge new coastal project called the Cabrillo Deepwater Port.

This means unless a lone consumer lawsuit against it succeeds, the Australian energy giant BHP Billiton Ltd. will soon begin building California's first liquefied natural gas import terminal 14 miles off the coast of Ventura County -- the first LNG terminal on America's West Coast.

And yet, recent testimony from the president of the state Public Utilities Commission indicates regulators don't have any idea whether it's needed.

This project could only get as far as it has because every regulating authority involved says there's a need for the gas it would provide. Some of the same regulators also have said they believe LNG will bring gas prices down despite costs of more than $5 billion to build each terminal and the massive ships to serve it.