As the Port of Long Beach, CA, 25 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, methodically works through the development of an environmental impact assessment, proponents and opponents of a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal in the harbor city continued to butt heads last weekend. A neutral city official in attendance said the confrontation was probably a draw in terms of the number of people on each side.

Elected officials in the City of Long Beach, which along with adjacent Los Angeles Harbor jointly represents the busiest port in the United States and third busiest in the world, held a “community education forum” last Saturday in which several hundred pro and con activists attended. The opponents claimed “tremendous momentum” for their plans to stop Mitsubishi Corp.’s plans to build the $400 million, 700 MMcf/d facility under its U.S. subsidiary, Sound Energy Solutions (SES).

“It was about 50-50 [opponents and proponents],” said a spokesperson for the city. “If anything, there may have been more pro-LNG people [mostly union members] who showed up.”

SES last year lined up a unit of ConocoPhillips as its partner in the development of the facility (see Daily GPI, July 14, 2004). The project will have a peak capacity of 1 Bcf/d, and is projected to begin operations by the early part of 2008 as the first LNG receiving terminal in California, if not the entire West Coast of North America.

The “No LNG in LB” citizens group discounted the pro-LNG people who showed up at the all-day city council-sponsored forum, alleging that the proponents’ backers were made up entirely of paid union members, and did not include even one local resident who wants the LNG facility built.

“Of course, those guys are going to support an LNG terminal,” said Bob Hattoy, of the California State Fish and Game Commission. “They see it as job security. It won’t be in the heart of their city and it won’t affect their families. So why would union workers who don’t live in Long Beach have a problems with a LNG terminal here?”

Long Beach Mayor Beverly O’Neill said the forum was held to provide information on the LNG terminal plans, and she encouraged residents to attend so they could “hear a variety of viewpoints on an important issue that is facing our community.”

Besides O’Neill, the head of the Port of Long Beach planning, Robert Kanter, City Attorney Robert Shannon, and SES COO Tom Giles spoke as one panel in a three-panel format, followed by a panel of state officials and residents, and finally legal and port operating presentations regarding the proposed LNG facility were offered in the afternoon. The session ran from 9:30 a.m. through 1:30 p.m.

In an announcement earlier this week, the anti-LNG group said “the collective voices of Long Beach residents opposing SES’s LNG proposal have gotten mighty and their opposition is growing.”

Both SES and Port officials were contacted, but neither returned calls from NGI.

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