There are two cliches you can just about make book on hearing when someone is trying to shove something down your throat: “This is good for you” and “This won’t hurt a bit.”
As I sat there at the hearing on the proposed LNG terminal, I kept hearing variations on this theme as one after another of the representatives of BHP Billiton took the floor to reassure us that not only was it necessary but it was perfectly safe. They seemed nice enough folks; kind and concerned about our well-being and certainly patient as they good-naturedly endured the chorus of boos from the Malibu residents, few of whom had gotten an opportunity to speak yet. All, that is, except the one who added a point that they hadn’t mentioned heretofore. With thinly veiled contempt, he pointed out that Californians used (abused?) more fossil fuel than any other state in the United States and therefore, I suppose, should be the ones to pay the piper. So I guess it was shut up and take your medicine and feel guilty while doing it.
These people mean business and have deep, deep pockets. I looked at the panel in front of the room. Who are these people who are going to say yes or no to this proposal? Is anybody monitoring their bank accounts?
The LNG people didn’t hang around to listen to the speakers who followed them. They had answered what they anticipated were going to be the arguments against and didn’t know or care if there were any concerns other than whether it was necessary and safe. Such matters as real estate values, the traffic nightmare, the ecological impact and other things mentioned were not important enough to worry about.
One would have to be naive, I suppose, to think that aesthetics would have any weight when dealing with practical matters (read this as money matters); but you could have all the money in the world and you couldn’t create the beauty of Malibu and the California coast. Evidently, it would take considerably less to destroy it. As for the argument about the necessity of it, the only way it has any merit is if you accept their premise that fossil fuel is the only solution to the energy problem.
Garrett Nichols