LNG rival tapped for Canada’s Cabinet Thompson says he will fight facility in Maine

ST. STEPHEN, New Brunswick – A vocal opponent of plans to build a liquefied natural gas facility in Passamaquoddy Bay has been named to a post in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s new Conservative government.

Greg Thompson, 58, a member of Parliament from New Brunswick, was named minister of veterans affairs.

Harper was elected prime minister last month, succeeding Liberal Paul Martin.

Thompson’s southwestern New Brunswick riding, or district, includes St. Stephen. Elected initially in 1988, he was toppled in 1993 when Liberals took control of Parliament. He was re-elected in 1997 and has been sent to Ottawa ever since.

Now Thompson plans to again take his opposition to building an LNG terminal in Maine to Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

“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,” Thompson said shortly after he was elected. “And Mr. Harper has stated that we will use every diplomatic and legal means to enforce that now.”

Thompson, who was in Ottawa on Thursday, did not immediately return a telephone call.

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

The MP said that although Canadian companies are building similar ventures there, those efforts are in industrial areas.

Last year, New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord joined Thompson to denounce the proposed LNG projects along the Maine coast.

Three plans are chasing one another in Washington County.

The first was from Oklahoma-based Quoddy Bay LLC. It proposed building an LNG facility at Pleasant Point.

The second was the Washington, D.C.-based Downeast LNG, which hopes to build a similar venture in Robbinston.

The Indian Township-owned Calais LNG was the third. It is working on a proposal to build a terminal and storage tank facility in Red Beach, south of downtown Calais.

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

Thompson has found support among some New Brunswickers who fear that the terminals will not only affect marine life and the environment, but tourism.

The new minister maintains that his government is on solid ground in its opposition because 30 years ago his country stopped a U.S. company from building an oil refinery in Eastport, Maine.

Canadian officials have maintained that the proposed $600 million Pittston project 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.