Dianne Feinstein: “States will be responsible for the safety of these facilities for a long time after they are sited. That is why it is so…”

“States will be responsible for the safety of these facilities for a long time after they are sited. That is why it is so important to preserve the rights of the States to participate in the process to determine where these facilities should be located. For LNG facilities that are being sited offshore, the Governor has the right to approve or veto a project now, yet this bill gives the State less input for facilities that are located on shore, in our busy ports, and near closely packed communities. This is completely illogical to me. It simply does not make sense. To give the Governor the veto power over a deepwater port more than 3 miles from land, and yet refuse to give that Governor any veto power over a site that might be located in the heart of the densest metropolitan areas of our country is completely illogical. In a conversation I had recently, last week, with Chairman Pat Wood of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, he said even if the Federal Government sited an LNG facility, it would not be built as long as a Governor opposed it. If that is in fact the case, then why not give the Governor of a State the necessary authority? Let me explain how this works. Under the Deep Water Port Act, which was amended in 2002 to regulate the process for siting offshore LNG, an LNG terminal that is located in Federal waters beyond the 3 miles of the State's territorial waters must be approved by the Federal Government, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S.…”