Mayor: Change LNG policy

Daniel Fowler, Herald News Staff Reporter 03/01/2005

FALL RIVER -- Though he was denied the opportunity to testify in person at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing last month, Mayor Edward M. Lambert Jr. made sure his voice was heard when he submitted written suggestions for improving the country’s liquefied natural gas policy.

Last week, Lambert gave the committee -- headed by Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. -- three suggestions for improvement.

The mayor said the federal government should develop a comprehensive LNG needs analysis, recognize that LNG facilities do not belong in densely populated areas and offer financial incentives for companies to build offshore LNG facilities.

"There is a novel idea in that it lets the federal government take money they would use for security and subsidize offshore proposals," Lambert said.

Lambert said it costs the Coast Guard about $100,000 for security every time an LNG tanker goes into Everett and estimated it would cost more to protect a tanker going to the facility Hess LNG hopes to build in Fall River.

"Say it’s $200,000 for security per trip," Lambert said. "Let’s say (there are) 52 trips, that’s over $10 million per year. If you spread that over 20 years, that’s $200 million."

The mayor said his estimates were conservative and based on the fact that LNG tankers would have to travel along more than 20 miles of coastline to reach the proposed Fall River facility, as compared to roughly five miles to get to the Everett terminal. Lambert said an LNG tanker would come to Fall River every five to seven days.

"Just go to the companies and say, ‘We’ll give you half the (amount saved) if you go offshore,’ " Lambert said.

While Lambert had hoped to testify in person at the Feb. 15 hearing, his overtures made through Sen. John F. Kerry’s office were denied.

Instead, the committee allowed Providence Mayor David Cicilline to testify in person.

"I didn’t realize things were so partisan, but there were three panels (at the hearing) and the Republicans run the show in Congress, and they decided that in the three panels they’d allow one Democrat," Lambert said last month. "I was told that Mayor Cicilline and I both had requested (the opportunity to speak), and they chose him."

E-mail Daniel Fowler at dfowler@heraldnews.com.

The Herald News 2005