The Saint Croix Courier

By BARB RAYNER

PLEASANT POINT – Save Passamaquoddy Bay says the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has removed Quoddy Bay LNG from its maps of proposed and potential liquefied natural gas projects in North America. SPB is an alliance of citizens from the United States, the Passamaquoddy Tribe, and Canada that opposes putting LNG industrial facilities in Passamaquoddy Bay.

In a news alert the group said the energy commission dismissed the Quoddy Bay LNG project in Passamaquoddy Bay in October 2008, stating the company would need to reapply as a new project with completed application before the commission would consider it.

In November last year, Quoddy Bay LNG withdrew from the State of Maine permitting process. Then in January of this year the Pleasant Point (Sipayik) Passamaquoddy Tribal Government severed its ground lease with the company, leaving the project with no site.

“As a final gesture of project failure, on or prior to July 29, FERC removed Quoddy Bay LNG from its maps of proposed and potential LNG projects in North America,” SPB said.

It was in August 2004 that the Passamaquoddy Tribe voted to allow the company to build an LNG terminal on tribal land despite opposition within the tribe.

The company planned to site, construct, and operate an import and regasification terminal at Pleasant Point and Perry. The proposed project included a 35.8-mile-long natural gas sendout pipeline to transport natural gas from the terminal to the interstate natural gas pipeline in Princeton.

Due to the unique conditions at the proposed terminal, a one-of-a-kind cryogenic pipe design was required, including a cryogenic pipeline over one mile in length and a submarine crossing of several thousand feet.

Quoddy Bay LNG is also under litigation. A complaint filed in court by Coler and Colantonio Inc. of Norwall, Mass., claims it is owed nearly $160,000 for work the engineering firm did in drafting documents for an application the company submitted to FERC.