LNG plan includes jobs, water emissions

MACHIAS – The first company to announce plans to bring a liquefied natural gas facility to Washington County presented the project’s details on Tuesday to the Sunrise County Economic Council – which months ago had backed a second, rival project with a letter of support.

“What exactly do you want us to do?” Dianne Tilton, the council’s executive director, asked Brian Smith of Quoddy Bay LNG, the Oklahoma-based developer seeking federal and state permits to build its LNG terminal at the Pleasant Point reservation.

“Nothing specifically,” Smith, the project manager, responded at the end of his presentation. “But we’d love all the support we can get,” such as letters of support and concern from individual board members who can file them with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Council directors took no action, and in fact, did not mention Quoddy Bay LNG for the duration of the meeting once Smith left the room.

Last August, the council had thrown its support behind Washington, D.C.-based Dean Girdis and his Downeast LNG proposal for Robbinston. In November, the council organized the Washington County Economic Summit, which featured Girdis as one of its speakers.

When Quoddy Bay introduced its LNG project to the region two years ago, it was presented as a $400 million facility. Quoddy Bay’s current printed material refers to a $500 million project, which has been the working number since last fall.

During his talk Tuesday, Smith put the project’s price tag first at $600 million – and later at $700 million.

“I’m not an expert on anything,” Smith said in his introduction Tuesday. “But I manage all the experts. I have the distinct advantage of knowing more about this project than anybody else in the world.”

Quoddy Bay’s project is moving through FERC’s pre-filing process.

The details shared by Smith included:

. Quoddy Bay is preparing some “initiatives” to offer Eastport, similar to its list of economic development plans it has presented to the citizen group Perry Improvement Association. The company wants to hitch its wagon to several projects already under way by Eastport residents themselves.

These include helping attract cruise ships to the Eastport port, helping “restore the historic beauty of the city” and helping “maintain and expand” the Boat School in Eastport.

The company also is investigating helping return rail service from Eastport to Ayers Junction in Pembroke.

. The company is not firmly committed to installing a “floating bridge” as an emergency exit plan for Eastport, should a disaster block Route 190 in and out of the city. Smith had talked about the plan in past weeks, yet clarified Quoddy Bay’s position.

“This isn’t something that we are definitely going to do,” he said, “but we have thrown it out for discussion.”

. Of the 90 jobs available once the plant is operating, “88 of those would go to Washington County residents,” who the company would train at the site. Jobs with full benefits would start at $15 per hour, with a top salary for the managers at $150,000.

“We are contractually committed to hiring local workers,” he said.

The company’s handout indicates that “70-100 jobs” would be provided over the facility’s “25- [to] 50-year operation.”

. As for water-quality issues involving the plant’s “submerged combustion vaporization” process, Smith said Quoddy Bay would “try to bring it from a major source of noxious emissions to a minor source” of just 100 tons per year.

“But we’re probably not going to be able to do that. … We don’t have the technology at this time. It looks like we will be stuck being a major source of noxious emissions.”

. Asked about the company’s ownership, Smith said his father, Donald Mitchell Smith of Oklahoma City, is a 92.5 percent owner – after holding just a 25 percent share in Quoddy Bay until last April.

“Right now, it’s me and my father making the decisions,” he said. “It’s relatively simple to get to the top.”

Smith said Quoddy Bay might consider giving half control to a 50-50 partner. Smith Cogeneration has two other energy plants operating with financing from partners, one in Oklahoma City and the other in the Dominican Republic, where Enron is a co-owner with Smith.