"A flea on the buttocks of Shell Oil."

You have to love any newspaper story about the Broadwater proposal (a Shell-TransCanada joint venture) that contains a quote from an opponent like this: "I see us as a flea on the buttocks of Shell Oil."

Thus did Sid Bail, president of the Wading River Civic Association, announce his neighborhood's opposition to the LNG terminal in the Westchester section of tomorrow's Times (and I assume the Connecticut and Long Island sections as well).

Likewise the Affiliated Brookhaven Civic Association (ABCO) and one of its members, the Rocky Point Civic Association, have announced their opposition.

ABCO's lawyer, Richard Johannesen, told the Times: "We just found out about this project two weeks ago, and so Broadwater got a two-year head start. They may not know yet that they have stumbled into a hornet's nest, but they will very soon."

Meanwhile, Broadwater's regional project director, John Hritcko, is edging toward the up-is-down, black-is-white method of public debate. Regarding his company's proposal to build a large industrial facility in the middle of the Sound, Hritcko said, "We don't agree that it is industrialization."

[I couldn't find the Times story online. If it appears, I'll link to it.]

And finally, here's a link to an old item, from Newsday, that discusses how language added to a House appropriations bill late last month could affect the states' abilities to stop the Broadwater proposal.