2005 December 23
by Marie Jones Holmes
Representatives of the various state agencies that will form the newly established liquefied natural gas (LNG) technical working group met Tuesday, December 13, at the Maine State Planning Office. Coordinator of the group is Uldes Vanags of the State Planning Office.
"As a group we will respond to requests from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) concerning assessments of various reports, including environmental reports," comments Vanags.
Quoddy Bay LLC, the Oklahoma-based company that proposes to build an LNG terminal at Split Rock in Pleasant Point, filed a FERC pre-application on December 16. "We will be asking all state agencies to look at the Quoddy Bay LLC plan," states Vanags. "We need to determine what kind of resources will be required from state agencies in response to all the reviews. If Quoddy Bay LLC and Downeast LNG pre-file concurrently there will be a heavy demand on our time."
Downeast LNG plans to build a terminal and storage facility at Mill Cove in Robbinston.
Maine departments represented by the various agencies include the Maine Emergency Management Agency, the State Fire Marshall, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Conservation, the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, the Department of Transportation, the State Planning Office and the Maine Historic Preservation Commission.