Ilf'l June 3 - 9 .2005
/ Lang Island Business
News
OPINION
Greed unchecked In the 1987 movie "Wall Street," business tycoon Gordon Gekko proclaims "greed is good." In the past several years, however, former Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein said greed has created a corporate environment in which the notion of public good is anachronistic. Speaking at the Hauppauge Industrial Association's annual trade show May 26, Bernstein, who teamed with Bob Woodward to unravel the Watei^ate scandal for the Post in the early 1970s, said the "failings of the press" to keep government and business leaders in check is partly to blame. Sadly, he's right on hoth counts. Without fear of recrimination, executives aroimd the country and at local companies like Computer Associates International, Symbol Technologies and Newsday ran roughshod over ethical business practices, putting their own interests above thousands of employees and the communities they serve. Now, some former CA executives pleaded guilty to securities fraud while others still await trial. At Symbol, former CEO Tomo Razmilovic remains on the lam from U.S. authorities over his role in allegedly cooking the company's books. And Newsday installed a new business team following its circulation scandal. The silver lining? As Bernstein noted just five days before a former No. 2 official at the FBI fessed up to being "Deep Throat" - the secretive Watergate source that provided key information that helped take down the Nixon administration - it appears a commitment to the public good is returning. In bringing in former IBM executive John Swainson EIS chief executive, CA has presented an encouraging message to stockholdera that it intends to play on a level playing field. Symbol and Newsday have also made important improvements torecouptheir credibility. Not that they had much of a choice, of course, hut the results nonetheless are positive. Greed may be good to help propel the growth of industries and the rise of personal fortunes, but it shouldn't be the only motivation to get ahead. Unchecked greed, powerful as it is, also can carry risks for those who dance to its tune. Trailing those behind will be sleuths like Bernstein or New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer who will simply follow the money. E-mail letters to editor@libn.com or fax to (631) 737-1890. Please keep them brief and topical.
r r t!
John L. Kominicki
Carl Corry
Publisher tohn.kominitkj@libn.com
BlHor airl.corry@libn.(om
C O IS/f PA
M V
Long Island Business Hews rs a publication of Dolan Media Campany 1300 Baker Building, 706 Seiond Avenue South, Minneapolis, MH 5S4Q2 Jamss P. Dolan, President; Mark WC. Slodder, Vi[e PresidBnl, Newspapers; ScoFt J. Pollei, Executive Vice President and Chief Financiol Officer
Lon^ Island Business News (ISSN 08944806} is published weekly by Long Island Commercial Review Inc., 2150 Smithlown Ave., Suite 7, Ronkonkoma, N.Y. 117797358. Periodicals, 52 weeks in 2(X)5 plus 3 Annual Supplements and 6 Suffolk County Lien Sections are mailed separately and periodicals postage paid at Ronkonkoma, N.Y. 11779, at Shirley, N.Y 11967 and alFarmingdale, N.Y. 11735-9999. Phone: 631-737-1700, Fax: 631-737-1890. Contems copyright Š 2005, all rights reserved. Postmaster Send address changes to Long Island Business News, 2150 Smittitown Ave., Suite 7, Ronkonkoma, N.Y. 11779-7358. Subscription prices: $89 one-year, $142 two-years, $200 Itiree-years-
MILE 120 OF THE MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND RETURN TRIP: BABY JANE OFFICIALLY ENDS HER RLIBUSTER.
Why Bpoadwatep should he downed On the subject of the Broadwater liquefied natural gas factory proposed for Long Island Sound, there is good news and there is bad news. The good news is that there is virtually no support for it among Long Island leaders and elected officials. The LNG that Broadwater might supply is not needed under current or foreseeable plans. Less than 20 percent of it would go to Long Island, anyway. LNG has no record of reducing ener-. gy costs. And the Isiander-East Pipeline and Neptxine electrical cable assures no need for Broadwater ener^. In fact, the issue is not natural gas supplies at all; the issue is Broadwater This untried, unproven technolc^ calls for anchoring a vessel the size of the Queen Mary II, just nine miles off the coast in Long Island Sound then piping the LNG 25 miles west. Supertankers carrying this volatile fuel would come within a mile of shore and even closer to Fishers Island and the Plum Island Infectious Disease Research Center, causing concern about possible accidents or terrorism. LNG accidents have caused hundreds of deaths and more than one billion dollars in property damage. During the Democratic National Convention last year, the LNG faciUty in Boston was closed down, not by environmentahsts but hy the Office of Homeland Security. Nobody wants to see the indtistrialization of Long Island Sound. The Sound generates $5.5 billion in annual revenue for New York and Connecticut and government has recently spent more than a quarter billion dollars trying to restore to health this nationally-recognized estuary. If the Broadwater scheme is allowed to go forward, how will we be able to say "No!" to the next applicants? Will it be Exxon, BP, who knows? We don't want Long Island Sound to look like the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana or Texas. Then, there's the matter of our need to develop renewable, sustainable ener^. While solar and wind generated electricity won't meet all of Long Island's energy needs today, their development will be delayed for as much as 30 years, if we depend instead, on Broadwater Moreover, it makes no sense at all to transfer our dependency on foreign oil to a dependency on foreign LNG, suppUed by many of the same foreign sources. In addition, a two-day meeting with representatives
from the Coast Guard revealed some disturbing ramifications to commerce caused by the proposed location of the LNG barge. It seems that the proposed Broadwater site would block a prime shipping route which runs through the Soimd. This would either cause ships to travel around Broadwater bringing them closer to shore or it would require Broadwater to be relocated closer to land. Commercial and recreational fishing would be disrupted when LNG tankers move through the three-mile opening of the Sound into the Atlantic Ocean know as "the rare." Competition to pass through the race during high tide is already strong in the summer months and the threetankers-per-week needed to refill the Broadwater factory would negatively impact those who depend on easy access to the race. The bad news is that Broadwater is moving ahead full tilt. Responsibility for siting LNG facilities is largely the purview of the Federal E n e i ^ Regulatory Commission, a faceless, Washington bureaucracy that loves LNG. New York State, Connecticut and Long Island governments have little to say about whether the worst project since the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant, gets huilt. To make matters worse, last month, the House of Representatives tacked an amendment onto an ener^ bill which if approved by the Senate, would give FERC complete control of the decision-making on Broadwater. That's just plain wrong. So, despite widespread opposition to Broadwater, the project moves frighteningly forward. The Broadwater strategy is to ask everyone to take a "wait and see" approach to this dreadful proposal until it's too late for our opposition to make any difference. Long IslEinders and their representatives at every level of government must do all they can to stop Broadwater before it's too late. The writers are members of the SO-member Anti Broadwater Coalition of environmental and civic organizatiorts. Richard Amper is executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society. Adrienne Esposito is the executive director of Citizens Campaign (or the Environment