Indian Township to vote on LNG facility

Indian Township tribal members soon will have their say over an LNG facility that developers hope to build at their sister reservation at Pleasant Point.

Plans call for an Oklahoma developer to build a multimillion-dollar liquefied natural gas facility on Passamaquoddy tribal land at Pleasant Point. An underwater pipe across Half Moon Cove near Route 190 would connect the pier at Split Rock with a tank farm in nearby Perry.

Last year, tribal officials at Pleasant Point approved a “Project Coordination and Tax Agreement” with Quoddy Bay LNG. Indian Township officials objected, saying they, too, should sign the agreement because the project would affect both reservations since the land the facility would be built on belonged to the whole tribe.

Officials at Pleasant Point disagreed, and for months the issue simmered. For a time it looked as if the agreement was going nowhere until September 2006 when elections were held on both reservations and new leaders were chosen. Tribal leaders from both reservations met and an agreement was reached that Indian Township would have a say over the tax agreement.

Newly elected Gov. Billy Nicholas said Saturday that the tribal council at Indian Township met last week and decided to put the question before voters at the end of February.

“There will be a referendum held at Indian Township before the end of February that will address whether they want the tax agreement to move forward and LNG to be built,” Nicholas said. “At our local meeting the other night, I told our council they had three decisions. One was to put it out to the people as a referendum because the people put them there and would tell them what they wanted. Second was to not act on it at all. Third was to make a decision as elected officials. They chose to put it out to the people to vote on.”

Quoddy Bay officials said Sunday night they were pleased that the tribe was dealing with the issue.

“However, it is an internal tribal matter, and we respect that process and therefore cannot comment on internal decisions of the tribe,” Quoddy Bay tribal relations director Fred Moore said Sunday night

Nicholas said the wording of the referendum question would be decided once the reservation had consulted with its attorney.

The new tribal governor said there would be several workshops before the vote. “Not just the pro-LNG people, but the anti-LNG people. I think that’s important so that you get both sides,” he said.

Newly elected tribal Councilor Wayne Newell said Sunday he also favored a vote by Indian Township tribal members. “There are those of us – and I am one of them – who brought up that the land is owned by the community, by all of us, and that one community can’t make a decision without the other,” he said.

Newell said Indian Township was never asked whether it supported an LNG facility being built at Pleasant Point. “All of the land we live on is communally owned. So all transactions on that land quite naturally have to include a process either through your elected government or through referendum question,” he said.

Newell said he favored an open tribal government process for Passamaquoddy members. “We’ve just come through a horrific period – you can quote me on that – of not knowing what was going on. The end result was a total disaster. The voters have spoken, and now we want to make it the opposite. We want to make it open so everyone knows what’s going on,” Newell said.

Newell did not elaborate on the past, but shortly before the election federal officials descended upon the reservation asking to interview tribal members and looking at the tribe’s accounting practices under the former leadership.

If Indian Township agrees that an LNG facility should be built, Newell said, then the next step would be to sign any and all agreements. If approved, the agreement would exempt the developer from real estate and personal property taxes. It also would allow the Pleasant Point reservation to reduce the Tribal Employment Rights Ordinance tax it can impose on a construction project from 3 percent to 1 percent.

Not unusual on Indian reservations, the TERO tax also would allow the tribe to collect on the bricks-and-mortar part of the project.

If the vote goes against the developer, Newell said, there would be a need for more discussion.

More than 1,500 tribal members live on the Passamaquoddy tribe’s reservations at Indian Township near Princeton and Pleasant Point near Eastport.