Keeping gas barge details secret sends up red flag, AG contends

Print This Article E-mail This Article Special Reports Most Popular Attorney General Richard Blumenthal “We don't do business that way. We don't censure what we can tell the public.” State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal   “We do try to get information to those who need to see it. We are not withholding anything.” Tamara Young-Allen, spokeswoman for FERC   TODAY'S TOP STORIES ± Former Local Businessman Is Indicted In Ponzi Scheme ± Lieberman In Good Standing, Poll Shows ± Seaside Property Again Offered To Developer ± Teenagers Face Arson Charges In Griswold Fire ± $100M Shopping Center Developer To Meet With Stonington Officials ± Amtrak Poised To Begin Drawbridge Replacement ± Architect Urges Town To OK School Building Hikes ± Boos, Shouts Greet New Orleans Plan For Rebuilding City ± Israel Halts Investment Talks With Evangelicals ± Ledyard Council OKs Takeover Of WPCA Finances ± Missionary Society Lobbies Court To Force Commutation Standards For Death Sentences ± Norwich Rallies Around Haitian Woman's Cause ± Ohio Court Hears Eminent Domain Case ± Sixth Priest In A Year Takes Helm At Sacred Heart ± State Reverses Decision To Bypass Preferred Developer In Seaside Sale ± Studios Developer Offers Mission Statement To Allay NS Concerns ± Study: CAPT Good Predictor Of Success ± U.S. To Open North Slope Land To Drilling ± Who's To Blame For Felons' Ability To Vote Still Unclear

Hartford — If documents describing the engineering and design of a huge liquefied natural gas barge proposed for Long Island Sound must be kept secret to prevent a terrorist attack, the project must be inherently dangerous and should be rejected, state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Wednesday.

During a news conference, Blumenthal announced he is challenging a decision by federal regulators to withhold from the general public an engineering and design report for the Broadwater Energy LNG terminal. At Broadwater's request, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission agreed to restrict access to the documents under Critical Energy Infrastructure Information rules, developed as part of Homeland Security measures adopted by the federal government after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“Secrecy will not disarm terrorists,” Blumenthal said. “It will only disadvantage the public. It will not guarantee safety and security. It will disable efforts to accurately and accountably evaluate the risks. Secrecy spawns distrust. Concealment signals danger.”

Joining Blumenthal in announcing his challenge to FERC were state Sens. Leonard Fasano, R-North Haven, and Andrea Stillman, D-Waterford. They also criticized FERC's decision to limit access to information about Broadwater's plan to park an LNG barge in the middle of the Sound. Fasano and Stillman are co-chairmen of a state task force evaluating the proposal. Without the engineering and design information, they said, they cannot conduct a complete analysis.

“Broadwater has told us this is not a likely terrorist target,” Fasano said. “But if this (disclosure of the documents) is an issue of security, that puts the issue of terrorism back into play. You can't have it both ways.”

He added that detailed information about the engineering and design of the terminal, such as whether seawater would be used to warm the super-chilled liquid gas into a vapor and how storm water would be treated, is essential for the task force to be able to determine potential environmental impacts on the sound.

Blumenthal's challenge is similar to one filed last month by attorneys for Suffolk County, L.I., which includes the communities that would be closest to the LNG terminal. It would be located in New York waters of Long Island Sound, about nine miles north of Riverhead, N.Y., and 11 miles south of Branford.

Connecticut officials, including Gov. M. Jodi Rell, believe their views should be considered in FERC's review because the terminal and the tankers that will supply it could impact boating, fishing and environmental conditions on the entire waterway.

FERC has not yet made a decision on Suffolk County's challenge, according to Tamara Young-Allen, spokeswoman for the agency. FERC has been receiving reports and other information from Broadwater in preparation for Broadwater's submission of a formal application for the necessary permits from the agency. While many of those documents are available to the public on FERC's Web site, at the company's request some are not.

Broadwater, a partnership of Shell Oil and TransCanada Corp., expects to file its formal application by the end of this month. Company officials say the terminal would hold up to 8 billion cubic feet of gas and add it would add 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily to existing pipelines, with three-quarters of it going to New York and the rest to Connecticut. Liquefied natural gas to supply the terminals would come on refrigeration tankers filled at overseas wells.

Young-Allen said documents are classified as Critical Energy Infrastructure Information, or CEII, when they contain sensitive material about specific locations or diagrams of energy equipment that could be misused in the wrong hands. The rules were developed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, she said, to protect the country's utilities from becoming targets. Sensitive information about nuclear power plants and compression sites along gas pipelines, for example, is routinely deemed CEII.

Young-Allen emphasized that unlike other agencies that use CEII, FERC offers an alternative means for people to gain access to the information. Those who can demonstrate a need to know can make a formal request to FERC. In the case of a request that was granted, the applicant would be required to sign an agreement stating that he would not talk about the CEII information with anyone who didn't also have access to it. He could submit correspondence to FERC about the information as long as it alerts FERC that CEII information is included, Young-Allen said.

“This is a unique request,” she said of the challenge from Suffolk County and Blumenthal. “We do try to get information to those who need to see it. We are not withholding anything.”

Blumenthal said the mechanism available for gaining access to the engineering and design report from Broadwater is not adequate because it would severely restrict public comment about it.

“We don't do business that way,” he said, adding that he refuses to be muzzled. “We don't censure what we can tell the public.”

Secrecy is only justified, he said, in cases of “very exceptional national security interest involving potential loss of life.” If that is the case with Broadwater's documents, the project shouldn't be built in Long Island Sound, a busy shipping and boating corridor surrounded by populated areas, Blumenthal said.

John Hritcko Jr., senior vice president of Broadwater, said his company has simply followed federal procedures and that the claim that keeping the documents secret signals that the project poses a danger is flawed. Even some information about wastewater treatment plants falls under CEII regulations, he said.

“Does that make them less safe? Absolutely not. It ensures they remain safe.”

The situation, he said, is comparable to a home with an electronic security system. Having such a system doesn't necessarily mean the home is in danger. But, he said, the homeowner wouldn't give out the security code indiscriminately.

“What they're asking us for here is our pass code,” Hritcko said.

At FERC, officials characterized Blumenthal's announcement as part of a pattern that could hurt Connecticut's future energy supply.

“He's opposed every energy infrastructure project that's come down the pike,” said spokesman Bryan Lee, referring to Blumenthal's objections to a gas pipeline and an electrical cable across the sound. “The commission is very concerned that Connecticut is on the verge of becoming the next California. The state must develop the infrastructure — power plants, pipelines and new natural gas supplies.”

He continued: “This is not about keeping information secret. This is information that's sensitive that could do damage to the U.S. infrastructure if it should fall into the wrong hands.”

www.ferc.gov; www.broadwaterenergy.com; www.ctlng.state.ct.us/ 

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