PLEASANT POINT – Members of the Passamaquoddy tribe who oppose a proposed $300 million liquefied natural gas terminal on their land fear that the tribal council is pushing a referendum vote on the matter because councilors believe the majority of the 650 residents of the reservation favor the facility.

Former tribal Rep. Madonna Soctomah, whom tribal members describe as a feisty elder, believes if the community learns more about LNG it would reject the plan the way other towns along the Maine coast have rejected it.

“I am shaking petrified,” Soctomah said Thursday of the proposal.

Tuesday night tribal leaders voted 4-3 to place the issue before voters. The vote is expected to be held within the next 30 days.

Quoddy Bay LLC of Tulsa, Okla., an energy development partnership, announced a proposal last month to build a terminal on a 42-acre site on the Passamaquoddy reservation also known as Sipayik. The proposal estimates there could be as many as 1,000 jobs created during the construction phase and more than 70 full-time jobs once the facility is up and running. High-end jobs could pay more than $60,000 a year.

LNG is natural gas that has been compressed for transport. Ships can carry it long distances and unload it at a port. The Oklahoma partnership wants the terminal to connect with the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline near Baileyville. That line runs from Sable Island off Canada’s coast to Portland, where it moves natural gas to Massachusetts.

Soctomah said she did not believe the issue should be placed before voters until they had a chance to learn about the hazards of liquefied natural gas terminals.

“People have no knowledge or information as to what liquid natural gas is and how disastrous it could be and how dangerous it is,” she said. “If there is a blast this reservation would be gone.”

Tribal Rep. Fred Moore, who favors the plan, said information has been made available to members through information sessions. “If any individual or group does not favor the project, they will do anything they can to keep it from going to a vote because they are afraid people will vote it in,” he said. “So all of these concerns are really stall tactics.”

Soctomah said she also was concerned that tribal members were being swayed by dollar signs. She said tribal members have been told they would be paid $1,000 a year through a lease agreement with the corporation if the terminal were built.

Moore said the money would be more than tribal members receive from the permanent trust fund stemming from the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act.

“Right now the per capita payments don’t amount to the budget they are feeding their dogs,” he said. He said the interest from the permanent trust fund was less than $200 a year.

And there would be other benefits to building the terminal, Moore said.

“[Opponents] are not looking at the prospect of generating our own electricity,” he said. “They are not looking at converting to natural gas for cooking and heating, which would eliminate our dependence on surrounding vendors and save our community approximately $1 million in utility costs. That money would be circulated within the community and create more jobs and allow the tribe to market excess power outside of the reservation which would create greater revenues which can be devoted to cultural preservation, language, education and health.”

Soctomah said tribal leaders who favor the project are ignoring a 1988 plan that identified viable economic development opportunities while rejecting others because the land was not suitable. The master plan included information done by a soil scientist.

The plan, which was approved by the council under the direction of Gov. Melvin Francis, Soctomah said, clearly stated that reservation land was not suitable for certain types of development, such as an LNG terminal. She said she also worried because the proposed site was near a sweet-grass marsh. Sweet grass is used in the making of baskets, a major staple of the tribe’s culture and economy. “They need to put it where there is no living thing,” she said.

Moore said when the master plan was written, the tribe did not own the property. “The land being considered for the placement of this facility was not tribal land,” he said. “To take an overall economic development plan that paid consultants drafted for you in order to get funding dollars and to try and rely on it for nearly 20 years is a mistake.”

Moore said the sweet-grass field would not be affected by the project. “If anything, the sweet-grass marsh will be enhanced because of the limited use of the area,” he said. “If the people that are so concerned about the community could act or respond in a proactive manner, they would learn we would have the assistance and cooperation of the company to expand and cultivate a bigger sweet-grass field.”

Soctomah said the issue was tribal and criticized state officials for “mucking” around in tribal affairs. Gov. John Baldacci said earlier he favored the plan. “Tell Baldacci to mind his own business,” Soctomah said.

The governor’s spokesman, Lee Umphrey, said it was the governor’s business. “The governor believes that LNG not only will help create jobs but provide a clean energy source,” he said. “What the governor is advocating is not anything more than open dialogue with the community and the company.”

The tribe’s attorney, Craig Francis, Thursday cautioned that just because the issue was going to be voted on did not mean it was a done deal. He said there were three legs to the plan – political, legal and business – and the referendum question was just one piece of it.

“So basically because this is such a politically controversial issue, the leadership has said to the community, ‘You guys answer the political question as to whether the Sipayik members of the Passamaquoddy Tribe want to host an LNG facility,'” he said.

Approval of the referendum, the attorney said, did not mean the terminal would be built. The next step would be for the company to undertake a feasibility study.

Harpswell and Searsport voters rejected the LNG plan.