With applicants and opponents both primed for a long debate, the draft environmental impact report on a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal in the Port of Long Beach, CA, will be released on Monday when the port oversight board is scheduled to meet, according to Tom Giles, the COO for Sound Energy Solutions (SES), a joint venture of Mitsubishi Corp. and ConocoPhillips that has proposed the terminal.

The joint draft EIR, which is being prepared by the port and the staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, will be subjected to a series of public meetings in which anyone from the general public and local/state government can raise questions that the applicants are obliged to answer.

This pending development is separate from, and will not be affected by, the motion filed Tuesday with FERC by the California Public Utilities Commission to end the state agency’s long-standing disagreement with FERC’s assertion of sole jurisdiction over the $700 million, 1 Bcf/d Long Beach Harbor receiving terminal.

Separately, as part of the ongoing case, the CPUC has asked FERC to hold evidentiary hearings based on additional safety risks the state has identified. Giles said that is what the review process of the draft EIR will do, whether or not the state had made its request.

“This next period is not centered on us, or the port or FERC,” Giles said. “It is the public’s opportunity to comment and raise questions, and we’re confident we will be able to respond in a way that will be successful from our standpoint.”

While the CPUC has now conceded to FERC’s ultimate jurisdiction, it is still an active intervenor in the Long Beach terminal case. Meanwhile, a study of safety issues by the city’s fire and police departments that was ordered by the Long Beach City Council last spring has not been completed or at least made public, said Giles, who confirmed that negotiations with the city’s energy utility for an eventual supply contract are still ongoing with no end in sight right now.

“The issue is being able to supply some gas to the city, and in my view those discussions are progressing very well,” Giles said. “The talks certainly are active and there is no acrimony that I know of; we’re just working through the mechanics.”

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