Connecticut LNG Task Force To Hold Informational Hearing Regarding New Federal Report

Senator Len Fasano, R-North Haven, co-chair of the Connecticut Long Island Sound Task Force, announced that the task force will hold an informational hearing on April 16th to discuss the conclusions and recommendations of the recently released federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, “Maritime Security: Public Safety Consequences of a Terrorist Attack on a Tanker Carrying Liquefied Natural Gas Need Clarification.”

The informational hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m., Monday, April 16th in Room 2A of the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.

“We need to clearly understand the findings and recommendations of the GAO report in light of the fact that Connecticut has a huge stake in the outcome of Broadwater’s application to install an LNG 11 miles off of our shoreline. The best way to do this is to bring together everyone who has an interest in, and an understanding of, the issues,” said Senator Fasano.

“We’ve had grave concerns all along about the potential for the Broadwater LNG terminal to become a bull’s eye for terrorists and now it seems the GAO shares with us those concerns, so we have an obligation to reconsider all the public safety implications of this huge structure so close to Connecticut’s shoreline,” said Senator Andrea Stillman, co-chair of the Connecticut Long Island Sound LNG Task Force. “In addition, I want it spelled out in no uncertain terms that Broadwater will be responsible for all municipal public safety costs incurred to prepare for and respond to an emergency at the terminal if we are ever required to live with it just offshore.”

In preparing its report, the GAO reviewed the results of recent studies on the consequences of an LNG spill and identified the areas of agreement and disagreement among experts regarding the consequences of a terrorist attack on an LNG tanker. The GAO report recommended that the key issues identified in its report be incorporated in a current LNG study expected to be completed by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2008. The Department of Energy study is looking into concerns about whether LNG tankers could become terrorist targets, causing the LNG cargo to spill and catch fire and potentially explode.

“In our report, the Connecticut Long Island Sound LNG Task Force strongly recommended that FERC postpone finalizing its draft environmental impact statement on Broadwater’s proposal until all the facts are in. Here, we have a federal agency expressing some serious concerns, and essentially agreeing with our task force’s findings that the decision makers do not yet know everything they need to know in order to make a responsible decision on the Broadwater application. We need to talk about that, and we need to decide what the task force’s next step should be,” said Senator Fasano.

Those interested in learning more about the GAO report can visit the federal Government Accountability Office website at www.gao.gov. Using the search function at the top of the web page, type in LNG as a key word, or the number of the report, which is 07-316.