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Feds Collect Pros, Cons on Robbinston LNG Facility

Posted on: Thursday, 30 March 2006, 09:01 CST

By Diana Graettinger, Bangor Daily News, Maine

Mar. 30--ROBBINSTON -- Federal officials got an earful Tuesday about a proposed $400 million liquefied natural gas facility being built in this tiny community, and most of it was positive.

Washington D.C-based Downeast LNG hopes to build a $400 million LNG facility at Mill Cove.

Most people suggested that the LNG facility would bring jobs and economic development to an area that has long been depressed.

First Selectman Tommy Moholland said a recent town vote revealed that 75 percent of the people who voted favored an LNG terminal in Robbinston.

Ian Pratt, who owns a car dealership in Calais, said he did not believe that a facility would enhance tourism. He noted that the Bayside Port in neighboring New Brunswick had received a shipment of ammonia nitrate, which can be used as an explosive.

Several others also rose in support of the project.

Opponents of the project gave the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staffers some concerns of their own to think about including fear that an LNG tanker sailing through Head Harbour Passage near Campobello Island could explode.

Harold Bailey of Lubec read from a prepared statement submitted to FERC by the Roosevelt Campobello International Park Commission, a cooperative Canadian-U.S. board made up of three members and three alternates from each country. U.S. members are President Roosevelt's grandson Christopher Roosevelt of Armonk, N.Y., Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, and newspaper publisher Richard J. Warren of Bangor; alternates are former Maine Gov. Kenneth Curtis, and President Roosevelt's granddaughters Chandler Roosevelt Lindsley of Dallas and Eleanor Roosevelt Seagraves of Washington, D.C.

Although the remarks were prepared in 2005 for the LNG facility proposed for Pleasant Point, Bailey said the commission believed they were applicable to the Downeast LNG project today.

Bailey said that the park was established in 1964 by treaty between the United States and Canada. The 2,800-acre park is on Campobello Island, near the border with Lubec. The park's main attraction is the historic summer home of U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who vacationed on Campobello with his family over a period of 56 years beginning in 1883. He said the park employed 53 full- and part-time people.

A ship would pass close to the island on its trip to the LNG terminal. In its statement, commission officials said safety was a major consideration.

"It is clear from analyzing the various safety reports available from both U.S. federal sources and private independent institutions that the heat alone from any fire or explosion involving an LNG tanker in transit to or from the proposed terminal would immediately render to ashes much of the shoreline vegetation and structures on northern and eastern Campobello Island, the island's most populated areas, including the park's shoreline buildings and the historical Roosevelt cottage," Bailey read.

The commission said that the explosion of any LNG tanker has been compared to 55 Hiroshima nuclear bombs.

The commission also asked the Canadian government to restate its policy against the involvement of tankers through Head Harbour Passage and said that Canada views the waters concerned as "internal waters" and therefore not subject to limitations of sovereign action such as might be implied by the doctrine of "freedom of innocent passage." Something that proponents have argued is applicable to the disputed waterway.

"If any accident were to take place whether a mechanical failure, human oversight or due to terrorism, the results would be catastrophic," Bailey said.

While the commission is opposed to the LNG terminal, ship's Pilot Robert Peacock of Perry said he favored it. He said it could lead to major economic benefits for the area. Local ship's pilots are responsible for moving ships into and out of local waterways.

Peacock, who along with other ship's pilots in the area stand to make money from the introduction of more ships to the area, said that the fishing industry for the most part was in trouble Down East. He said that an LNG facility would be a benefit. "Let's face it we need economic development in this area," he said. "I am strongly for LNG, I think everybody knows that."

The Washington, D.C.-based Downeast LNG project is in its pre-filing stage, and no formal application has been submitted to FERC.

Ultimately the commission staff will prepare an environmental impact statement for Downeast LNG Inc. The commission will use the statement in its decision-making process to determine whether the project is in the public convenience and necessity.

The proposed facilities include an LNG import terminal and storage facility, and a natural gas send-out pipeline 31 miles long and 20-24 inches in diameter.

FERC officials also were in eastern Washington County to address the site proposal of Oklahoma-based Quoddy Bay LLC, which hopes to build a facility at Split Rock on Passamaquoddy tribal lands at Pleasant Point with adjoining storage tanks in Perry.

FERC officials plan to prepare a statement that will address the environmental impacts of the two projects, while the U.S. Coast Guard will assess the maritime safety and security of the projects.

The comment period deadline for the Downeast LNG project is April 17. The deadline for the Quoddy Bay project is April 28.

FERC will be the lead agency on both projects in cooperation with other federal, state and local agencies.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Bangor Daily News, Maine

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Bangor Daily News (Bangor, Maine)

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