Scrambling to make up ground in opinion polls showing his gubernatorial campaign trailing the incumbent, California State Treasurer Phil Angelides Friday stood on a bluff in Malibu overlooking the Pacific Ocean and declared he is opposed to BHP Billiton’s proposal to build an offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal about a dozen miles out to sea.

<>Angelides nnounced his own coastal protection plan, “Coast Guard,” that will fight what he said are pro-energy development policies of the Bush and (Gov. Arnold) Schwarzenegger administrations. Included in the six-point plan is a call for requiring “comprehensive state planning before approval of any LNG terminals and desalination plants” along California’s coast.

Hitting a political theme voiced in his political advertising, Angelides stressed the ties between Schwarzenegger and Bush while avoiding the governor’s continuing differences with the White House on fighting global warming. He said Billiton’s proposed offshore receiving terminal was backed by both the President and California’s governor.

Joining the state treasurer, who is the Democratic candidate for governor, were coastal protection activists and city officials from nearby Malibu and Oxnard, along with an actor who lives in the area, Daniel Stern.

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