Fighting "The Man" In Malibu.

Opponents of LNG in Malibu have a new (or perhaps not so new) enemy: the government bureaucracy. Ironic as it sounds, the government bureaucrats are giving activists fits by moving too quickly and too slowly.

Several anti-LNG interests have complained that the regulatory hearing schedule is too accelerated for them to adequately review the revised EIR, and now Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) has sent an angry letter to the EPA complaining the agency has been too slow in responding to his Committee's request for documents relating to an earlier EPA policy reversal on Cabrillo Port.

Bureaucracy and red tape have long been favorite and effective weapons of anti-development interests so it is with some degree of irony that they appear to be tripping them up in this case.

Of course this will have a predicatable result: the "No on LNG" crowd will complain about "corruption" and "collusion" in the government (the sound bite of last resort in any public policy battle) and they may even utter with disdain the name of the presumed architect of their troubles, "President George W. Bush" (which is like beaming the "Bat Signal" for Malibu residents-- a universally understood call to arms).

But when all is said and done, there are going to be hearings and a decision is going to be made. And once that happens, we're all going to have to live with it because that is how the regulatory process works-- for good or for bad.

So let's keep the focus on the upcoming hearings, not the incendiary rhetoric that will seek to obscure the real issue. And may the will of the public be done!