Hearing Set Today for Island Gas Facility

By Beth Daley, The Boston Globe

Mar. 8–As controversy over a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal on a Boston Harbor island intensifies, a hearing will be held today on whether state legislators should allow the facility to be built.

The proposed terminal, by AES Corp. of Virginia, would be built on Outer Brewster Island, part of the national park system. The plan would help with demand for natural gas in the Northeast, but would not stop deliveries of liquefied natural gas through Boston Harbor to an Everett facility.

Today, AES plans to release a report for the company, conducted by the former White House counterterrorism official Richard Clarke, that says safety concerns would be negligible if a liquefied natural gas terminal is built on the island. The site is 8 miles east of the downtown waterfront.

Yesterday, environmentalists announced that if a legislative vote took place today on the proposal, they would have enough votes to defeat the measure. AES needs a two-thirds vote of both houses of the Legislature to convert the park to a new use before it seeks a host of other state and federal approvals.

MassPIRG, the advocacy group, released letters from 16 Massachusetts senators and 58 representatives opposing legislation that would allow the parkland to become a liquefied natural gas terminal — more than the one-third needed in each house to defeat the proposal.

The Outer Brewster proposal has become a lightning rod for controversy since it was announced in September, and both sides have tried to win supporters.

In November, it was reported that language in the bill needed to convert the parkland to a new use excluded every company that has proposed building a liquefied natural gas facility in Massachusetts except AES. Then, two weeks ago, a call placed to a number for a “citizens group” in favor of the Outer Brewster Island terminal rang at Regan Communications, the public relations firm hired by AES to promote the project.

The hearing will be held at 11 a.m. in the State House.

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