Indian council to pursue LNG talks

PLEASANT POINT – After a marathon meeting that lasted late into the evening, the Passamaquoddy tribal council voted Thursday to continue to discuss with developers a plan to build a $400 million liquefied natural gas facility on tribal land in coastal Washington County.

Neither the tribal governor nor the tribal council was available for comment after the meeting. But several tribal members who attended the session said that the developers, Oklahoma-based Quoddy Bay LLC, warned that if the tribe did not act Thursday night there was a good chance the LNG facility would be built in nearby Robbinston.

Quoddy Bay spokesman Donald Smith said after the meeting, “I have nothing to say tonight.”

No one from Robbinston attended the meeting. The small town located a few miles north of Pleasant Point had not previously been mentioned publicly as a possible site for an LNG facility.

Thursday night’s tribal council vote is the latest chapter in the difficult negotiations to bring an LNG facility to Passamaquoddy land.

Although tribal members voted last year to move forward with construction of a facility, the tribe and Quoddy Bay LLC have been criticized both on and off the reservation because for months they refused to discuss the nuts and bolts of the project.

Tribal officials learned late last year of a provision in an agreement the tribe entered into in 1986 with the town of Perry that gave Perry residents a say over any commercial development on land annexed from the town by the tribe. Not until that provision became widely known did the developer and tribal leaders begin to hold information sessions.

Ships bring in LNG from countries such as Algeria and Indonesia to terminals, where it is unloaded, processed and sent to pipelines.

The tribe had planned to build a facility on 40 acres it purchased from Perry, but tribal officials ran into a problem when Perry voters in March said no.

An exclusivity agreement between the tribe and Quoddy Bay is scheduled to lapse on May 14.

The developers were back at the tribal office Thursday. So were opponents of the proposed facility.

Both sides spent the better part of the morning discussing procedure and whether the tribal council could go into executive session, which it ultimately did.

During a short break in the proceedings, Donald Smith of Quoddy Bay stepped outside the tribal offices, but he went back inside when reporters tried to ask him questions.

Former state tribal Rep. Madonna Soctomah said she was mystified by the secrecy. She said tribal leaders not only refused to discuss where the proposed LNG facility would be built, but would not discuss any aspect of the project. “This is our inheritance, our property,” she said. “They are talking about leasing the land and trying to go into executive session without our input.”

Proponent Eddie Bassett said he also learned nothing during the morning meeting. “A proposal is going to be presented, hopefully,” he said.

After several more hours of discussion, opponent Deanna Francis said tribal leaders voted to enter executive session. She said members of the community were told to return at 5 p.m. “They said they did not want any of this information to be accessible to the press until they had had a chance to discuss it with the two attorneys that are present,” she said.

Attorneys included in Thursday’s discussions were Craig Francis, who is a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, and Robert D. Williams of Boston.

Opponent Vera Francis said she did not believe the community should have been shut out of the meeting.

The tribal council “is being advised by somebody that’s being paid by Quoddy Bay LLC,” Francis said. “Therefore, our interests are in jeopardy as long as he is in there.”