TALKING ABOUT GAS

The preliminary permitting last week of a liquefied natural gas terminal in nearby New Brunswick should spur Maine LNG proponents to get serious about the feasibility of a similar facility here. The project next door shows that others are intent on developing LNG facilities while Maine is still trying to figure out if it wants them.

By gaining preliminary approval from the provincial government, Irving Oil’s project is years ahead of anything that has been proposed for Maine. That doesn’t automatically mean the terminal planned for south of Saint John will be built. Because of fees tacked on by the U.S. government, it costs much more to transport gas from Canada than it does to ship it around the United States.

Whether the New Brunswick terminal, or one approved by Nova Scotia authorities this week, becomes a reality or not, there are other competing projects in the wings in Massachusetts and other states on the East Coast. If Maine wants to lure LNG here it must do so soon.

The Passamaquoddy Tribe has moved quickly to get in the queue. But, local opposition to the terminal on reservation land is growing and questions as to the ease of transporting tankers carrying super cooled natural gas through the region’s rugged coast and large tides remain unanswered. A local referendum on an LNG terminal is slated to be held this month.

As with other communities that have considered an LNG terminal, the conflict is between protecting the environment and people from the potential dangers of LNG and the economic opportunity that the gas can provide.

Locally, an LNG facility could provide 70 full-time jobs and 1,000 jobs during the construction phase. Good paying jobs are a scarcity in Washington County and some other coastal areas. If built on tribal land, a terminal would make payments that could be used to fund tribal services and to make payments to individual members. If built elsewhere in Maine, tax payments would benefit local communities and the state. There would be environmental benefits from generating electricity for use in Maine and beyond from natural gas rather than from oil, or in the case of out-of-state generators, coal, which pollute more.

These benefits must be weighed against the potential for a leak or explosion. In addition, a terminal, with its piers and tanks, will intrude on what is now undeveloped shoreline.

Those who are adamantly opposed to LNG are becoming increasingly brazen. Early last month, police arrested six protesters who blocked a driveway and scattered lobster shells on the lawn of the Blaine House while calling for a moratorium on LNG terminals in Maine. Gov. John Baldacci, who has said he supports an LNG terminal if a community can be found that wants it, was home at the time. Late last month, a masked protester smashed a cream pie into the back of the head of the governor’s director of energy independence and security, Beth Nagusky, at an LNG forum in Brunswick.

With such antics it will be hard to have a serious discussion about the pros and cons of LNG. But, if Maine wants to be taken seriously by companies eager to build a gas terminal on the East Coast, it must at least try to have that conversation. Otherwise, the piers will be built to our north and south and if and when Maine decides it wants one, it will be too late.