LNG firms to skip St. Andrews forum

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ST. ANDREWS, New Brunswick – Oklahoma-based Quoddy Bay LLC has people in this seaside community scratching their heads now that company officials have said they would not appear before the public later this month because of “security concerns.”

Two liquefied natural gas developers – Quoddy Bay LLC and the Washington, D.C.-based Downeast LNG – were invited to talk about their plans to build terminals in Passamaquoddy Bay.

The meeting was scheduled to be held at the W.C. O’Neill Arena.

Mayor John Craig and the Town Council extended the invitation.

Downeast LNG President Dean Girdis, who hopes to build a $400 million facility in Robbinston across from St. Andrews, declined the invitation early on, saying he had a scheduling conflict.

Quoddy Bay LLC, which hopes to build a $200 million facility at Split Rock with an eight-mile underwater pipeline connected to storage tanks in Robbinston, at first said it would attend.

LNG opponent Art MacKay also planned to attend.

The format called for each side to make a presentation and then field questions from the public. Because Downeast LNG was unable to attend, the mayor planned to present the information the council had received from the company.

On Tuesday, a Quoddy Bay spokesman in Saint John, New Brunswick, notified Town Manager Tim Henderson that the company would be a no-show.

Contacted by the Bangor Daily News, Quoddy Bay spokesman Peter Nelson of William Alexander and Associates Ltd. in Saint John, left a voicemail response.

“I can be very succinct in leaving this message,” he said. “We regrettably had to inform the mayor and council of St. Andrews that we have to decline their invitation as there are security concerns surrounding the format being proposed. However [Quoddy Bay project manager] Brian Smith does look forward to meeting with groups individually in the coming months to discuss the coming Quoddy Bay LLC initiative, and that’s about where it is.”

Asked later if by “security concerns” it was meant that Smith was afraid the Canadians might attack the presenters, Nelson declined to explain and said, “I think it’s kind of self-explanatory.”

Meanwhile, Girdis of Downeast LNG said the company was not concerned about security issues and would welcome a meeting in St. Andrews whether it was a small or large group.

“We look forward to meeting with them,” Girdis said.

Opponent Art MacKay said he also was looking forward to the open forum. “It was supposed to be very organized,” he said.

“While we tend to have an odd loud individual over here as you do over there, I’ve never in all my life ever known there to be an altercation or anyone’s life to be threatened whatsoever. We actually are quite pointed but mild-mannered,” he said.

MacKay said he believed it was part of Quoddy Bay’s strategy to divide and conquer people and communities.

“I think … for them to come up with this security thing is ludicrous in the extreme. You can quote me on that. Nobody’s ever been fearful about coming over here,” he said.

Town Manager Tim Henderson agreed that most Canadians are “quite passive.”

The town also is home to a major research center, the Huntsman Marine Science Centre.

“We have a lot of people who are very learned in this area, especially on environmental and marine issues, and they wanted this opportunity to hear Mr. Smith, certainly not from a confrontational viewpoint,” Henderson said.

Although Smith will be absent, Henderson said, the meeting will be held as scheduled.

“We were going to give everybody a chance to hear the information and ask questions from both parties on the information they were being given,” he said. “Now obviously all we are going to be able to do is say, ‘Here’s the proposals from these people, they haven’t really come to present them,’ and have people ask questions.”

He said the public from both sides of the border are invited to attend. “We’re all in this together, it’s everyone’s bay,” the town manager said.

Although Smith’s team wants to meet in small groups, Henderson said he did not believe the mayor and Town Council would agree to that.

“All our meetings are open to the general public and the council will not meet with any presenters on a private basis,” he said.

There also would be a problem with a public meeting in council chambers because of space concerns.

“I don’t think the council would meet with them unless it’s held in a larger venue where people have the opportunity to be there,” he said.

The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 22.