White House, States Clash on Gas Terminals
WASHINGTON — President Bush called Wednesday for federal regulators, and not states, to have final say over the location of liquefied natural gas terminals, stepping into an emotional issue that has roiled California and other coastal states.
A provision similar to the one the president endorsed Wednesday is already moving through Congress. It is opposed by the administrations of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in California and Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, in Florida. The two governors fear it would weaken the states' ability to respond to safety and environmental concerns over the terminals.
The dispute offers a lesson in the politics of energy: Issues often divide lawmakers based on their home-state interests rather than their party affiliation.
The Bush administration and its allies in Congress have been looking for ways to speed up the building of energy facilities, an effort to address rising prices and supply shortages. Imported liquefied natural gas, or LNG, has been eyed increasingly as a way to fuel electricity-producing power plants and meet other energy needs.
LNG is the same natural gas commonly used in homes, but cooled into a liquid, which condenses it for easier shipment in ocean tankers. Before it is used as a fuel, it is warmed and returned to gas form.
Currently, three terminals that accept LNG deliveries are in operation on the East Coast and a fourth is on the Gulf Coast. Dozens of new facilities have been proposed, including one at the Port of Long Beach and two off the Ventura County coast.
But the proposed facilities have generated concerns about potential terrorism and other safety risks. A study last year by scientists at the Sandia National Laboratories, one of the government's nuclear weapons labs, said that a terrorist attack on a tanker delivering LNG at a U.S. port could set off a fire hot enough to harm people and buildings nearly a mile away.
Bush stepped into an ongoing dispute over the relative powers of state and federal regulators in picking sites for LNG facilities. Speaking to a conference on small business Wednesday, the president said: "Congress should make it clear to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission its authority to choose sites for new terminals, so we can expand our use of liquefied natural gas."
Schwarzenegger's energy advisor, Joe Desmond, said California objected to any effort to cut out states from decisions about where facilities are built and what conditions are imposed on their operations.
