New LNG Plan Gets Cool Reception at Federal Hearing
By Alex Kuffner
Weaver’s Cove Energy is proposing an alternate plan for a floating liquefied natural gas terminal in Mount Hope Bay.
BRISTOL — They called the plan ill-conceived, dangerous, an environmental disaster and just plain bad.
The majority of the people who testified last night on Weaver’s Cove Energy’s proposal for a floating liquefied natural gas terminal in Mount Hope Bay were emphatic in their opposition.
“What angers me, what incenses me … is that these people have the audacity to construct this facility in our bay,” said state Rep. Raymond E. Gallison Jr., D-Bristol, Portsmouth. “Mount Hope Bay belongs to the people, not Weaver’s Cove.”
About 80 people were at Mt. Hope High School in Bristol last night for the first of two public hearings scheduled by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Weaver’s Cove’s latest proposal to ship LNG to the area.
The second hearing was set for tonight at 7 at the Venus de Milo restaurant in Swansea.
Weaver’s Cove wants to build a 1,200-foot-long berth in the middle of Mount Hope Bay, about a mile from the closest shoreline. Tankers would dock there and unload LNG, which would be piped to a re-gasification plant that would be built in Fall River.
The 4.25-mile pipeline to the plant would be buried in a trench at the bottom of Mount Hope Bay and the Taunton River.
The off-shore facility was put on the table after the company’s original plan — to build a $250-million marine terminal in Fall River’s north end — encountered a series of obstacles.
The company had planned to bring supertankers through Narragansett and Mount Hope bays and up the Taunton River, to unload them in Fall River.
It received FERC approval for the project in 2005, but last August, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management denied an application to dredge a portion of Mount Hope Bay to clear the way for the 950-foot tankers.
And in October, the Coast Guard ruled that not even smaller tankers could safely navigate under the Brightman Street Bridge and its replacement span, now under construction between Somerset and Fall River.
Tankers wouldn’t need to travel under the bridges to reach the floating terminal because it would be located downstream in Somerset waters, about a mile southwest of Brayton Point.
Weaver’s Cove has not dropped its original proposal — which is widely opposed by local and state officials in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts — but has offered the off-shore scheme as an alternative.
The new plan, however, has stirred up just as much opposition. Last night, speakers questioned how federal regulators could even consider an application for a floating terminal.
Joseph Carvalho, president of the Coalition for Responsible Siting of LNG Facilities, called the process a “farce.” Massachusetts state Rep. David Sullivan, who represents Fall River, called it “a ploy to pump life into an already dead project.”
Middletown Town Council member Louis P. DiPalma said, “The plan was bad then. The plan is still bad now.”
Of the handful of people who spoke in support of the plan, two cited the potential economic benefits of building an LNG terminal, either off-shore or in Fall River.
They said the project would create jobs and could slow increases in the price of natural gas.
“This area needs energy,” Donald Church said. “It needs a constant supply of it.”
But Church was in the minority last night.
More typical of the sentiment in the audience were the comments from Terence Tierney, a representative of Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch’s office. He raised concerns about the potential environmental damage caused by dredging around the proposed site of the floating terminal.
He also questioned the facility’s security, saying it could be a possible terrorist target.
Lynch, who was not present, has called the proposal an assault on Mount Hope Bay.
Michael Profio, a Somerset, Mass., resident, said Weaver’s Cove is trying to “bully their way in.” He urged the public to block the plan.
“We’ve been fighting this project for five years,” he said. “We’ll continue to fight it.” akuffner@projo.com / (401) 277-7457
Originally published by Alex Kuffner, Journal Staff Writer.
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