Canadians pan Maine LNG projects Environmental dangers, threats to tourism cited in opposition to terminals

FREDERICTON, New Brunswick – Canadian opponents of proposed liquefied natural gas terminals in Maine say U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins is wrong when he says Ottawa could do little to stop the controversial projects.

Reaction was swift Thursday after Wilkins told a Moncton newspaper that if the three LNG terminals proposed for the Maine side of Passamaquoddy Bay, near New Bruns-wick, clear U.S. regulatory hurdles, they can operate.

Greg Thompson, a Conservative member of Parliament whose New Brunswick district includes communities near the proposed terminals, said Canada simply has to block access to LNG supertankers through the Canadian waters leading to the Maine terminals.

“There is something Canada can do because the ships would have to travel through internal Canadian waters, and if the government of Canada says no to the transport of those tankers through those waters, the project would not go ahead,” Thompson said.

“The U.S. ambassador is wrong.”

Three separate LNG terminals have been proposed on the Maine side of Passamaquoddy Bay.

But the prospect of LNG supertankers navigating the treacherous Canadian waters leading to the terminal sites has stirred outrage in southwestern New Brunswick communities bordering Maine.

Opponents claim the terminals and their tanker traffic would create an environmental hazard and threaten local tourism.

“The tourist economy, the fishing economy, the environment – all of that would go,” said Larry Lack of St. Andrews, which is near the proposed LNG sites.

The federal Liberal government has been under growing pressure to say it will not allow LNG tankers through the Canadian passage leading to Passamaquoddy Bay, but government officials will say only that the matter is being studied.

Opposition Conservatives are asking Prime Minister Paul Martin to do what former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau did in the 1970s when he blocked oceangoing tanker traffic to a proposed Maine oil refinery.

“We have history on our side,” Thompson said.

“It was the right decision then and it would be the right decision now, and I’m expecting the government of Canada to do that.”

Three separate U.S. developers have proposed LNG projects for Robbinston, Calais and Passamaquoddy tribal land at the Pleasant Point reservation – all in eastern Maine.

Richard Hoffmann, an engineer with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said at a recent public meeting in Robbinston that if each developer submits stellar applications, then “probably, yes,” all three facilities could be constructed.

But Hoffmann also told the meeting that if the Canadian government decides to prohibit Maine-bound LNG tankers in Canadian waters, then none of the three proposed facilities likely would be built.

Tamara Young-Allen, a spokeswoman for the regulatory commission in Washington, said the regulator has yet to receive any applications or pre-applications for terminals in Maine. She said the regulatory process takes at least two years.