Addressing the SEAAOC conference in Darwin yesterday, he said contrary to the perceptions of many Australians, several US LNG projects had been approved in recent years.

However, the approvals process was difficult and many of the failed projects had not succeeded in placating community opposition, or had submitted flawed technical proposals, or both.

“LNG developers need to have a community outreach program right from the start of their projects, as early as site selection,” he said.

“They also need to get their plans in order as much as possible before filing with government. Major tweaks after filing will indicate to government that the company doesn’t know what it is doing.”

The US has five existing LNG terminals – three on the Atlantic coast and two on the Gulf coast.

Four more have been approved and are under construction and about 10 have been approved but are not yet under construction. But none of these terminals are on the Pacific coast.

Slutz said the California coast’s high population density meant there were very few suitable sites but the state needed LNG and would need to approve re-gasification terminals.

Opposition to LNG projects was based on a range of issues, according to Slutz.

These included safety and security fears, concerns over the project’s impact on air and water quality and a belief that local communities were being given all of the risk associated with the project but little of the reward.

But some opposition was simply anti-development – the groups and individuals involved would oppose any kind of development in their area, he said.

Another speaker at the conference, Taiwanese Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Ruey-Long Chen, said Taiwan had proposed that APEC establish an LNG Public Education and Communication Information Sharing Initiative to address LNG’s “not in my backyard” problem.