Gas Appeal
By Soule, Alexander
Ostensibly in Fairfield County last week to meet with business leaders, perhaps Gov. M. Jodi Rell also hoped to breathe deeply of Long Island Sound air to fortify herself in a fight against a proposed energy terminal.
Rell and other opponents of Broadwater Energy apparently lifted their champagne glasses prematurely in celebration last month. Broadwater last week launched an appeal of New Yorks denial of its petition to anchor a floating, liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Long Island Sound.
Broadwater had received clearance from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission provided Broadwater met certain environmental conditions, but the New York State Department of State determined the project would vie that state’s Coastal Zone Management Act. The New York decision followed an announcement by Exxon Mobil Corp. to install an LNG plant 20 miles off the New Jersey coast, double the distance Broadwater’s proposed station from Connecticut shores.
Broadwater; a joint venture between TransCanada Corp. and a U.S. subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc, now wants the federal Department of Commerce to reverse the New York decision. It was not immediately apparent whether an appeal could be completed by the conclusion of President George Bush’s term of office next January.
Broadwater also has the option of filing a federal lawsuit in hopes a judge would override New York officials. In hopes of building an LNG terminal in Maryland, AES Corp. is awaiting an appeal of a judge’s decision that Maryland’s own coastal-management law could be used to defeat that project.
Rell and New York Gov. David Paterson enjoy strong support in their opposition frompoliticians on both sides of the aisle.
‘We did it! We did it! We did it!” Rell said following the New York decision last month. “Anyone who has ever stood on these shores and looked out over these beautiful waters understands that this is no place for a giant industrial barge.”
Broadwater might have its own base of support, however – in early April the company released results of a poll it commissioned by Whitman Insight Strategies, which showed that Connecticut support for the project runs deepest in Fairfield County, where 59 percent of those surveyed voiced approval. Whitman Insight polled 500 residents statewide, but didnot beyond the percentage figure indicate how many lived in Fairfield County.
On Long Island, N.Y., 68 percent of those polled supported the project.
“It is important to recognize that the Long Island, New York City and Connecticut gas markets are at the end of very long gas pipelines,” said John Hritcko, regional project director for Broadwater Energy, in written comments revealing the appeal proceeding. “As a result, this market region pays very high prices for natural gas relative to other parts of the (United States). The Broadwater project brings significant new gas supply into the region and will serve to moderate regional gas prices.”
Copyright Westfair Communications May 5, 2008
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