LNG plant: What’s wrong with more study?

Re: “PSE’s gas plant studies have ‘significant technical issues,’ Puyallup tribe’s experts allege,” (TNT, 7/19).

As a Tacoma resident and nurse concerned about public health, it is alarming that the city is relying on an environmental analysis informed partly by Puget Sound Energy-funded studies as a basis for approving the controversial LNG facility at the Port.

This is like relying on studies about the efficacy of a medication funded by the makers of such medication who have a large financial interest in a certain, positive result.

The results should be taken with a large grain of salt, if considered at all.

We need independent studies that explore the worst-case scenario. The “never event” often becomes a reality, as we saw last December with the Amtrak crash north of Olympia.

When lives are on the line, every possible catastrophic outcome should be adequately studied and taken into consideration before approving such large projects.

If everything is truly safe, the city and PSE shouldn’t be worried about a little more investigation. If there are glaring problems, the public deserves to know.