LNG firm presents Robbinston plans Officials say vote not last word on project

ROBBINSTON – A referendum set for Jan. 10 asking, “Shall the town approve the proposed Downeast liquefied natural gas terminal at Mill Cove?” appears to some residents as an up or down vote on the $400 million project.

But a majority “no” vote won’t actually stop the project, developers and project proponents said this week.

“That would just tell us that we have more educational work to do,” Dean Girdis, president of Downeast LNG, a Washington, D.C., firm, said Tuesday.

On Wednesday Girdis and his partner Rob Wyatt presented a $3.8 million annual package that would accompany their project to residents at a public hearing mandated to be held at least 10 days before the referendum.

More than 100 residents filled the gym at the Robbinston Grade School which, if voters approve the LNG proposal, could be converted to an assisted living facility for the elderly. Downeast LNG would build a new school elsewhere in town.

Those are among the dozens of details outlined by the developers. They described a myriad of financial benefits for the town that would accompany the construction and operation of an LNG import terminal at Mill Cove on Passamaquoddy Bay.

Some of them:

. Downeast LNG would pay the entire portion of its property tax obligation, estimated to be 92 percent of the town’s budget. (Currently around $300,000, the budget would soar to about $1.3 million because of the higher total valuation for the town).

. The company would establish a town community development fund for $100,000 annually during the plant’s construction phase and $1.2 million a year during its operation.

. The company would contribute $500,000 annually to a previously announced Washington County economic trust fund.

. Homeowners with abutting properties would have a choice of three compensation plans, including a one-time $25,000 “impact fee.”

All taxpayers received the outline of what Girdis called the “draft working agreement” in the mail on Wednesday. The points were offered in consultation with the town’s advisory committee.

Some residents went to the informational meeting thinking that voting “no” on Jan. 10 would bring the project to a close. Wyatt told them otherwise.

“This decision [the Jan. 10 vote] is by no shape or form the end of the discussion or planning or agreements [for the LNG project],” Wyatt said. “The end of a yes-or-no vote is at least two years, or maybe 18 months, away.”

He was referring to the ultimate decision to approve LNG within Robbinston belonging to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Selectmen set the Jan. 10 vote after receiving dueling petitions last month. The first of them – signed by 70 opponents of LNG coming to Washington County – asked for a delay in the vote until Yellow Wood Associates’ report on the impact of LNG around the Passamaquoddy Bay is complete.

The other – signed by 190 proponents of the project – asked that the vote on the Downeast LNG project be held immediately.

Selectmen consulted with the Maine Municipal Association before announcing that the vote would be held at the special town meeting early next month.

Downeast LNG, which announced itself in town in July, will use the outcome of the vote to consider the strength of the community’s support.

“It’s good to know, for us, where you stand,” Girdis told the residents. “It’s a community’s right to express themselves … an opinion today is not an opinion tomorrow. We want to do a project that is supported locally.”

The Mill Cove plan is one of three LNG proposals that have surfaced for coastal Washington County. The Oklahoma-based Quoddy Bay LLC plans a similar venture at Pleasant Point.

Locally owned Calais LNG is working on a proposal to build a terminal and storage tank facility in Red Beach, south of the Calais downtown area.