News Release

2012 April 4

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Robert Godfrey
Save Passamaquoddy Bay 3-nation alliance
(US, Passamaquoddy, and Canada)
PO Box 222
Eastport, ME 04631
(207)853-2922 (Old Sow Publishing)
info@SavePassamaquoddyBay.org

FERC Dismisses Calais LNG From Permitting Process

The US Federal Energy Commission (FERC) director of Energy Projects Jeff Wright today notified Calais LNG Project Company and Calais LNG Pipeline Company that, in accordance with FERC regulations, their project has been dismissed from federal permitting.[1] FERC's letter catalogs Calais LNG's 2010 loss of financing, loss of access to its project site, withdrawal from Maine permitting, and the developer's inability to remedy those losses as reasons for the dismissal.

Save Passamaquoddy Bay researcher and webmaster Robert Godfrey commented of the dismissal, "This kills the proposed Calais LNG project. Calais LNG is only the second LNG terminal applicant to ever be dismissed by FERC. The first dismissed LNG project was Quoddy Bay LNG, proposed at Pleasant Point. Quoddy Bay LNG was dismissed by FERC in 2008. Now, Calais LNG has succumbed to the same fate, and for similar reasons — unneeded projects in inappropriate locations."

"Now," Godfrey continued, "Downeast LNG is the last project here in Passamaquoddy Bay. Ironically, it is also the very last shoreside LNG import terminal project in the entire United States and in all of North America. One other LNG import project — Liberty LNG, miles offshore from New Jersey — remains, as well. Both are unneeded due to the vast supply of domestic natural gas in nearby Pennsylvania, and due to rapidly expanding natural gas interstate pipelines in the Northeast and New England regions."

"In 2005 there were nearly 40 LNG import terminal projects in the works. Now, there are just two. The natural gas industry itself has already recognized and dismissed LNG import terminal projects as a worthless and defunct business model. Downeast LNG is the last shoreside holdout in a pointless pursuit," Godfrey concluded.

Source:
[1] Federal Energy Regulatory Commission eLibrary Docket No. CP10-31, Accession No. 20120404-3031
http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/File_list.asp?document_id=14009758

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Save Passamaquoddy Bay (SPB) is an alliance of citizens from the U.S., the Passamaquoddy Tribe, and Canada, who oppose siting LNG industrial facilities in Passamaquoddy Bay, and who advocate adherence to world-recognized LNG terminal siting best safe practices as published by the Society of International Gas Tanker and Terminal Operators (SIGTTO). SPB advocates creative-economy, tradition-based, and tourism-based economic development for the international Passamaquoddy Bay area.

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