LNG developers ‘reassessing’ options Smith laments ‘late’ public relations effort

PLEASANT POINT – The Oklahoma developer of the liquefied natural gas facility proposed for Passamaquoddy tribal land at Pleasant Point said his group is reassessing its options after Monday’s rejection of the project by voters in Perry.

“We will review our options and make a decision in the next few days about our next steps,” Donald Smith, president of Quoddy Bay LCC, said from Oklahoma Tuesday.

Perry residents voted 279- 214 to reject the facility that would be built at Gleason Cove on Passamaquoddy Bay.

The town weighed in on the development opportunity because of a 19-year-old arrangement that automatically allows Perry a voice concerning commercial development on 390 acres the town transferred to the tribe in 1986. The proposed LNG facility would occupy 42 acres within the 390-acre parcel.

The vote produced the biggest turnout ever for Perry residents, Town Clerk Janice Scanlon said Tuesday.

The outcome was a blow to the developers, who hold an exclusivity agreement with the tribe and have been coordinating plans for the last 10 months.

Melvin Francis, Pleasant Point’s tribal governor, was not available Tuesday for comment on the tribe’s view of the Monday vote.

Smith said support for the project fell short because about 100 more voters cast ballots than Quoddy Bay LLC supporters were expecting.

He also blamed the grass-roots work of Save Passamaquoddy Bay, the local group opposed to the LNG project, citing its campaign of “disinformation.”

“We had talked to 300 people, and we expected 300 people to vote,” Smith said. “There were 100 people who voted that we didn’t expect, either absentees or people from away – and that’s a local term – who registered at the last minute. That turned the election.”

Scanlon said the vote total of 493 included 65 absentee votes and 28 more who registered to vote on the day.

Property owners in Perry who live elsewhere were not allowed to register or vote, contrary to Smith’s understanding.

“I checked everyone who registered,” Scanlon said. “I questioned the ones I didn’t know. There was one man who wouldn’t sign an affidavit of residency, so he didn’t get to vote.”

Voters also chose a new selectman Monday in Jeanne Guisinger. She defeated David Turner 234-219. A write-in candidate, Turner actively supported the LNG project and the economic bounty it represented.

Guisinger had advocated rejecting the facility as Perry’s coordinator of Save Passamaquoddy Bay.

The issue that had divided friends and neighbors in the town of 844 was to be set aside Tuesday evening for the town’s annual meeting, which tackled more mundane municipal issues than the industry-vs.-lifestyle ones presented Monday by the LNG vote.

If the LNG question had passed, Perry residents stood to benefit from the tribe’s and developers’ joint offer to pay $1 million annually to the town, which would more than cover Perry’s annual budget of $600,000-plus.

Moreover, Smith detailed on Tuesday that the project would involve as many as 98 full-time jobs, all paying in excess of $70,000. More than 400 jobs would be available during the facility’s three-year construction phase, he said.

Smith said he regrets that Quoddy Bay LLC did not convey more specific information about the jobs and town and regional economic benefits to the Perry people sooner.

The Save Passamaquoddy Bay organizers, also referred to as the Three-Nation Alliance, spent Tuesday cheering the LNG rejection. They traveled to Augusta for a press conference at the State House.

The seven-month-old group said its “triumph is as much about honesty, transparency, respect and collaboration” as it is about turning away the Oklahoma City-based developer.

“This is a model of how grass-roots people working together can achieve stunning outcomes,” said the group’s overall coordinator, Linda Godfrey of Eastport. “Our collective effort and the positive energy we brought to this effort can inspire small communities anywhere that right does still triumph over might.

“There are still places and beliefs that have no price tag.”

The group called on both Baldacci and Francis to honor Perry’s vote and assist them “in bringing an end to the efforts of Quoddy Bay LLC.”

“It’s time for the Smiths [including project manager Brian Smith, Donald Smith’s 25-year-old son] and their public relations firm, Savvy Inc., to leave the area,” Godfrey said.

“We are a very welcoming part of Maine, yet the way these folks have treated the people, the process, and the place has been despicable … We are ready for them all to move out and move on.”

Smith said his team may seek to “re-educate the Perry voters” and ask for a second vote.