BHP gas scheme clears hurdle - Business - Business - smh.com.au: "BHP Billiton's battle to build an $US800 million ($1.09 billion) liquefied natural gas terminal off the Californian coast in the United States is about to heat up again after a key environmental report was released yesterday.
BHP has spent millions of dollars over more than two years on a plan to export Australian LNG to the lucrative Californian energy market, but staunch opposition by local activists has stalled the project.
However, the approval process was back on track yesterday when the US Coast Guard and California State Lands Commission issued a revised draft of an environmental report, which took into account safety and environmental concerns raised at public hearings more than a year ago.
The next step is a 45-day public comment period, including public hearings that are certain to be feisty. A prominent environmental group, the Sierra Club, has given the commission a petition signed by more than 1600 Californians opposed to the project. There have been several protest rallies, and T-shirts and posters saying 'Aussie go home! No LNG' are advertised on a local website.
Californian activists are keeping a close watch on the Cole inquiry's examination of BHP's $US5 million wheat shipment to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq and could raise the issue in submissions about the LNG project.
The 1000-page draft environmental report could allay some public concerns but it is unlikely to convince anti-LNG activists to support the project.
The report examined different disastrous scenarios, such as the gas terminal's ability to withstand being commandeered, bombed, rammed by a ship or attacked from the air.
The report said the LNG terminal was an unlikely terrorist target, compared with softer targets like soccer stadiums, and it noted that fire res"