How important are our unspoilt rural areas and marine environment? What extra cost and effort should we as a community make to preserve them? These are the questions at the heart of the debate over where to put CLP Power's liquefied natural gas terminal. The debate also highlights the inadequacies of our public consultation arrangements in a society where citizens are demanding a greater say on planning issues.
CLP Power has stated that gas from the Yacheng field on Hainan Island will run out much sooner than expected, and has impressed upon the community the extreme urgency of building an LNG terminal in Hong Kong to receive gas from other sources. The process of finding a suitable location began in 2004 with an examination by the government of 29 potential sites, which were eventually narrowed down to two: Black Point (where the CLP Power gas-fired power station is located) and South Soko Island.
Green groups expressed misgivings about the Sokos site, but CLP Power, with the government's blessing, proceeded to commission an environmental impact assessment of each site and was requested by the government to express a preference in its report. The company has expressed a preference for the Sokos, because it says it would be quicker and easier to build there than at Black Point.
Why was it requested to express a preference? The result has been to put the company in the position of having to defend its choice, of taking the government out of the firing line, and of reducing the debate to the merits of the Sokos proposal and sidelining discussion of Black Point.
Last December, CLP Power invited journalists to visit the Yacheng field. Officials of China National Offshore Oil Corp and BP, which run the field, told them that there were ample supplies of gas, in direct contradiction to its claims. Subsequently, in a statement that beggars belief, both CLP Power and CNOOC claimed that there had been a 'misunderstanding', and that the CNOOC officials had meant that the infrastructure would last another 30 years, not the gas reserves!
CLP Power announced the conclusions of the environmental study and its preference for the Sokos last September, months before publication of the study report. Despite requests by green groups for an early look at the report to engage meaningfully in the debate, it was not published by the government until December 28. The public has now been given until January 25 to comment on a 3,500-page document.
Society is entitled to feel that public consultation is being manoeuvred to deliver a result that suits both the power company and the government, on the basis of claims relating to the extent of remaining reserves at Yacheng that must now be questionable. It can be added to the lengthening list of 'public consultations' in which the public does not feel that it has really been consulted.