(March 17, 2008, updated with Court ruling text) -- LBReport.com provides in full the ruling by an L.A. Superior Court this morning (March 17) in favor of LB's Harbor Commission/Port/City of Long Beach, and denied a Petition for Writ of Mandate sought by Sound Energy Solutions (SES), a Mitsubishi subsidiary seeking to build/operate an 80+ million gallon Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facility in the Port of LB.

The Court, per Judge James Chalfant, upheld the Jan. 2007 action by LB's Board of Harbor Commissioners that ended work on an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) which was a prerequiste to advancing the LNG proposal. The Court ruled that LB's Board of Harbor Commissioners acted lawfully in halting work on the EIR before its completion.

To view the Court's ruling in SES Terminal, LLC v. Port of LB, LB Board of Harbor Comm'rs, City of LB, click here. [pdf, 11 pages].

The document above is the Court's Tentative Ruling (which the Court let stand as its final ruling we're told). It was given to both sides in advance of today's Court session today. [The City Attorney's office provided us with a copy after the hearing; it includes a few handwritten underlined passages].

We're told the Court heard arguments on the matter for roughly half an hour.

In a quick post-Court session cellphone call, City Attorney Robert Shannon told LBReport.com:

"The Court's ruling justified our position from the outset that after expiration of the MOU, the Harbor had no duty to go forward because it was dealing with its own property and was not required to lease the property. From that, it logically followed that it could halt the EIR. The purpose of the EIR is to assist the decisionmaker in making its final decision as to whether to lease the land...and it's consistently been our position that the Port, through its Board of Harbor Commissioners had absolute discretion on whether to lease the land."

Reaction requested from SES is pending. Details and further to follow on LBReport.com.