mr. chairman , this photo behind me is an lng tanker in boston harbor delivering lng to everett , massachusetts . 
right behind you can see east boston high school . 
if there was a terrorist attack , if there was an accident , you would not call the federal government . 
it would be the local police , the local fire department , the local emergency medical technicians that would respond . 
the republican bill eliminates the state and local participation in determining where a facility like this would be placed . 
now , it is not like there is a crisis . 
in america there were two of these facilities in 2001 . 
there are now five . 
six more have already been licensed by the state governments and the federal government in the united states . 
there is no crisis . 
so why are the mayors , why are the governors being walled out ? 
it is because the republican majority wants to hand it over to the federal government and to the natural gas industry . 
but it would be very dangerous to exclude the communities that are most affected , especially when states know they need the lng , we admit that , but we want to put it in more remote areas in the state or perhaps offshore and have it be piped in . 
but the republican majority says , no , we want to put it in the most densely populated areas and wall out all governors , all state officials . 
vote `` yes '' for the castle amendment . 
protect states ' rights . 
