Some top personal and political advisers to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are turning up as part of the public relations/lobbying team for one of the major proponents of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal along the state’s coast, Australian resources giant, BHP Billiton, according to a political analysis report in Monday’s San Francisco Chronicle.

A lawyer with one of the state’s top political law firms who is also a former personal attorney to Schwarzenegger’s wife, Maria Shriver, is reportedly heading up a lobbying effort in Sacramento regarding a proposed state legislative bill (SB 426) to give the California Energy Commission (CEC) the task of determining how many potential sites, if any, the state needs. The proposed new law is set. to be considered by the lower house Assembly Appropriations Committee later this month as state lawmakers returned from an annual summer recess Monday.

George David Kieffer, a Los Angeles attorney with the politically active LA-based firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, was described in the Chronicle political report as “so trusted by Schwarzenegger that the governor asked him to help recruit staff for the administration.” Kieffer told the newspaper that he has never discussed LNG issues with the governor, and he did not play a role in obtaining BHP as a client for his law firm.

In terms of state siting authority, which is somewhat at odds with that of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, California’s governor can veto any sites given the green light by the State Lands Commission. The recently enacted federal Energy Policy Act gives exclusive authority to FERC in LNG terminal siting matters. Legal action in federal court is pending on the jurisdictional fight between FERC and California over the LNG siting issue.

A red flag for the Chronicle political reporter also was the fact that last June while touring a California Independent System Operator (CAISO) back-up facility in Southern California, Schwarzenegger said in response to a question at a press conference that he personally thought an offshore site might be the best location for a LNG terminal in California, although he qualified the remark by saying he wanted to wait until all the facts were gathered on each of the proposed sites in the state, including one proposed for Long Beach Harbor (see NGI, June 24).

But Schwarzenegger’s chief energy adviser and the chairman of the CEC, Joe Desmond told the Chronicle it was a “mischaracterization” to refer to the governor’s comments as endorsing one project over another.

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