Connecticut Gov. Rell opposes LNG terminal

Connecticut Gov. Rell opposes LNG terminal Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell has expressed her opposition to the proposed Broadwater liquefied natural gas terminal in the middle of Long Island Sound, and is asking New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer to have New York agencies reviewing the plan “consider the potential disastrous environmental impacts.”
   The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said earlier this month that its staff had concluded in a final Environmental Impact Statement that Broadwater was likely to have “limited adverse environmental impacts.”
   Rell called this conclusion “ludicrous” and said the LNG terminal would amount to the “complete desecration of Connecticut’s environmental crown jewel and a total setback to the decades we have spent improving water quality and habitat in the Sound.
   “So far, FERC has utterly ignored the comments of Connecticut officials and countless others who point out that putting an enormous and potentially flammable industrial platform in the Sound amounts to environmental sabotage,” Rell said. “It is imperative that New York do what FERC would not — protect this irreplaceable natural treasure and preserve it for future generations.”
   Rell said FERC could issue a license for Broadwater as soon as 30 days after Jan. 11, but that the license could not take effect until New York’s Department of State has issued a coastal consistency determination — a finding that the Broadwater project is consistent with the goals of protecting the Sound and maintaining it for the benefit of all.
   Separately, Rell has ordered Connecticut’s Department of Environmental Protection to review the environmental impact statement with an eye toward filing a legal challenge to the conclusion.
   Broadwater Energy is a joint venture of the TransCanada, a pipeline and electric power producer, as well as Shell U.S. Gas and Power. It is proposing to build an LNG import terminal and connecting pipeline that would will be located nine miles from the nearest Long Island coastline and 10 miles from the nearest Connecticut coastline.
   Broadwater would comprise a Floating Storage Regasification Unit, or FSRU, that would be about 1,200 feet long and 180 feet wide and would rise about 75 to 80 feet above the water. LNG tankers would unload cargo to the FSRU every two or three days.
   More information about the project can be found at: www.broadwaterenergy.com.