Canadian MP vows to fight LNG terminal

ST. STEPHEN, New Brunswick – For years Member of Parliament Greg Thompson was in the federal government’s minority party in Canada, but no more.

On Monday, Thompson’s Conservative Party, led by Stephen Harper, walked away with the majority after a national election, and Thompson promises a vigorous battle against building a liquefied natural gas terminal in Passamaquoddy Bay. Harper was elected prime minister Monday, replacing liberal Paul Martin.

Now the New Brunswick politician plans to again take his opposition to building an LNG terminal in Maine to parliament hill in Ottawa.

And this time he says he has help.

“We [took] a position on this in September 2004, and our position has been carried over and articulated during the election. Obviously, we are against the passage of LNG tankers through Head Harbour Passage in what we consider to be internal Canadian waters,” he said Tuesday. “And Mr. Harper has stated that we will use every diplomatic and legal means to enforce that no.”

Last year, New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord joined Thompson when he also denounced proposed LNG projects along the nearby Maine coast.

Three plans are percolating in Washington County. Oklahoma-based Quoddy Bay LLC has proposed building an LNG facility at Pleasant Point, and the Washington, D.C.-based Downeast LNG hopes to build a similar venture in Robbinston. Washington County-based Calais LNG is working on a proposal to build a terminal and storage tank facility in Red Beach, south of the Calais downtown area.

The proposals call for huge tankers loaded with LNG from foreign ports to sail into Canadian waters past Head Harbour Passage near Campobello Island and follow a dogleg course to the terminals in the United States.

But Calais LNG spokesman Fred Moore rejected Thompson’s position. “This is Greg Thompson’s opinion. I congratulate him for his success and his party’s win. I don’t know if he is the spokesman now for the government of Canada or the ruling party. If LNG is as much of a concern as Greg Thompson says it is I would say it’s a great topic for Stephen Harper and [President] George W. Bush, should they ever meet,” he said. “And I don’t think that Canadian national policy or international policy is a subject that any local developer should be weighing in on.”

Downeast LNG spokesman Rob Wyatt said he too congratulated the Canadian candidates on their win. “But we believe our project is safe environmentally for the citizens of both countries, and we look forward to future meetings with Canada citizens and its officials,” he said.

Brian Smith of Quoddy Bay LLC did not return a telephone call Tuesday.

Thompson maintains that his government is on solid ground because, he said, 30 years ago his country stopped a U.S. company from building the Pittston Oil Refinery in Eastport.

Canadian officials have maintained that the proposed $600 million oil refinery in Eastport sank because Canada refused to allow tankers to pass through its waters. But proponents of LNG have argued that Canada did not stop the Pittston project.

Although Thompson is against LNG terminals in Passamaquoddy Bay, he and others have come under criticism because right now two Canadian companies are in the process of building LNG terminals near Point Tupper, Nova Scotia, and near Saint John, New Brunswick.

The MP said that although Canadian companies were building similar ventures there, those efforts were in areas that were considered “safe.” “It’s not us against Americans, it’s us understanding that this is not a safe location for LNG terminals,” he said.

Thompson said he believed his country had the right to reject the three U.S. companies’ efforts. “Every state from the Florida Keys right up through the mid-Atlantic into the Carolinas to the New England states, they’ve all had the opportunity to say no, and they have. We are saying as a sovereign nation we should reserve the right to say no ourselves, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” he said.