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Gold/Mining/Energy : LNG -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (217)	12/8/2004 8:47:47 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 919

Group sues FERC over LNG info Daniel Fowler, Herald News Staff Reporter 12/08/2004 heraldnews.com FALL RIVER -- A Washington-based investigative journalism organization sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Monday, claiming the agency has illegally blocked access to a variety of documents relating to proposed liquefied natural gas facilities throughout the country. The Center for Public Integrity filed its lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, requesting that it be granted "access to and copies of all documents in (FERC’s) custody or under (FERC’s) control related to correspondence, including but not limited to meetings, transcripts, schedules, minutes, and/or agendas between (FERC) and companies considering construction of (LNG) facilities." The lawsuit contends that the organization requested the information under the Freedom of Information Act in February and has only received "a fraction" of it. Specifically, in relation to the LNG facility Hess LNG hopes to build in Fall River, the organization is seeking materials exchanged between FERC and Baker & Botts, a law firm working for the company. According to Bob Williams, a project director at the Center for Public Integrity -- a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization -- the law firm labeled the materials critical energy infrastructure information and sealed it to the public. "We know there was correspondence," Williams said. "We’d like to look at it. It is, as far as we can tell, public record." The organization also wants to obtain access to reports commissioned by Hess LNG dealing with safety and security of both LNG tankers and the proposed LNG facility, Williams said. For FERC even to consider releasing CEII information, a person must first sign a nondisclosure agreement in which he or she promises not to disclose the CEII to another individual unless that person is an approved recipient of the same CEII. "We’ve been moving in this direction toward more government secrecy and more ‘behind doors’ government for a while now," Williams said. Williams said the Hess LNG-commissioned reports should be available to the public. "It’s completely absurd that the folks in Fall River don’t have the reports already," Williams said. "We want that information, but on a bigger scale, we want to open the process. This is a war we are fighting on a lot of different fronts. ... It all comes back to the fact that we think the public’s business should be done in public." By suppressing the information, Williams said, FERC is "basically giving the finger to the public." On Tuesday, the Center for Public Integrity released a report on LNG entitled, "Appealing to a Higher Authority," which stated that FERC "is aggressively undermining the authority of state and local governments to reject dozens of proposed liquefied natural gas facilities all across the country." The report says during the past three years, "FERC’s current four commissioners have met at least 83 times with executives and lobbyists representing oil and gas companies active in the LNG trade. In comparison, FERC has met privately only a handful of times with opponents of specific LNG projects." FERC spokeswoman Tamara Young-Allen said she could not comment on the lawsuit, but said the Center for Public Integrity’s report "is totally slanted." "Our agency has the responsibility to meet with all segments of energy to determine what’s best and in the public’s interest," Young-Allen said. "We offer numerous opportunities for the public to participate in our proceedings." Mayor Edward M. Lambert Jr., who was one of the sources in the Center for Public Integrity’s report, said he welcomed the organization’s lawsuit against FERC. Lambert is still waiting to hear back from FERC regarding a Sept. 10 letter where he said he would conceivably sign a limited nondisclosure agreement to gain access to the Hess LNG commissioned reports. Information that Lambert would agree not to release to the public include things that are "proprietary to the company" such as "material used in the composition of an (LNG tanker’s) hull." The mayor called it "ridiculous" that correspondences between FERC and Baker & Botts have been filed as CEII. "How can there be a claim that communications between Baker & Botts and FERC Chairman Pat Wood are classified CEII?" Lambert asked. "That is nonsense. Those are communications between a federal agency and attorneys for (Hess LNG). There is no terrorist-related information in those. This is a perversion of homeland security laws, and this is indicative of the insider status that (Hess LNG) and James Baker’s law firm has with FERC." In the mid 1980s, Wood worked at Baker & Botts. A spokeswoman for the Hess LNG project did not return a phone call seeking comment. E-mail Daniel Fowler at dfowler@heraldnews.com. ©The Herald News 2004