A prized energy source, or potent terror target?

"We only have one ship channel, and we just got our first cruise ship to dock here," she says. "Seafood is our No. 1 industry. If we have to close the bay to shrimping and recreation so these facilities won't get blown up, that would be a real disaster, too."

A possible solution is to put LNG facilities offshore. No such facilities exist today, though a number have been proposed. But the construction cost is several times greater than an onshore site. [Editor's note: The original version incorrectly stated that an offshore LNG plant exists today off the Louisiana coast.]

As public scrutiny of siting proposals intensifies, the DOE and its regulatory arm, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), have moved to assert sole authority to approve new LNG facilities - whether or not state regulators or the public approve of them.

Last week, FERC rebuffed activists and California regulators who had argued that the state controlled siting of the proposed Long Beach LNG facility. California's Public Utilities Commission will appeal FERC's 17-page "declaratory order asserting exclusive jurisdiction."

Opponents say the Long Beach site would be just over a mile away from neighborhoods packed with 9,300 people per square mile and - at the heart of the nation's biggest port with about half of US imports flowing through it - a threat to the entire US economy if it were blown up.

"It would certainly be very close to neighborhoods, but for financial reasons alone we think we're right that this would be a prime terrorist target," says Bry Myown, a local activist.

A FERC spokesman says public fears over the Long Beach facility are being taken into account within the process of a full environmental impact assessment.

Back in Boston, Fire Chief Paul Christian still worries as, nearly every week, another LNG tanker the length of three football fields glides into Boston Harbor and past downtown.

Security is tighter - with the harbor virtually shut to other boat traffic, speedy security vessels buzzing around, and shore security shadowing the tanker on its slow journey. But Chief Christian can't shake a sickening feeling each time he sees one, worried what would happen if LNG were released and caught fire.

"I don't like to think about it," he says. "But that's my job."

Three federally funded studies into LNG hazards are under way - one sponsored by FERC, another by the DOE, and a third by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. FERC's report on LNG tanker safety is expected to fill many gaps in earlier studies - although it will not make public certain portions for security reasons, a spokesman says.

Where is the Department of Homeland Security in all this?

That's what US Rep. Edward Markey (D) of Massachusetts, whose district includes the Everett LNG terminal, wants to know. In a March 23 letter to Secretary Tom Ridge, he asked if the department "assigned any personnel to review these studies," and is working with other jurisdictional agencies to upgrade security. Mr. Markey is awaiting answers to his questions.

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