Downeast LNG to refile application Firm cites federal denial of bid to run pipeline through wildlife refuge

Federal authorities have denied Downeast LNG’s request to build a gas pipeline through part of Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, thereby forcing the company to withdraw its application with state environmental regulators.

Downeast LNG has proposed building a 31-mile pipeline between Robbinston, where the company hopes to locate a large liquefied natural gas terminal, and existing gas facilities in Baileyville. Roughly 4 miles of the proposed pipeline would pass through Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge.

But late last week, officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected the company’s request to pass through the refuge. In their denial, FWS officials said the pipeline was inconsistent with current polices, would impact wildlife and public use of the refuge and would consume limited financial resources.

Downeast LNG officials said they had anticipated the denial and had already begun further exploring a route that bypasses the refuge. But because of the FWS’ rejection of the Moosehorn route, the company has been forced to withdraw its application pending with the Maine Board of Environmental Protection.

Rob Wyatt, vice president with Downeast LNG, said the company plans to refile with the BEP after determining a route around the wildlife refuge. He said the pipeline route on either side of the refuge likely would not change.

“We don’t see [the denial] to be significant. We consider it to be part of the process,” Wyatt said.

Downeast LNG is seeking authorization from the state and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to build a 320,000-cubic-meter LNG import terminal, storage tanks, a regasification plant and a pier on an 80-acre site at Mill Cove in Robbinston.

A second company, Quoddy Bay LNG, has submitted plans with regulators to build an even larger LNG facility on Passamaquoddy tribal land in nearby Pleasant Point.

Last month, Downeast LNG actually indicated to the BEP that it planned to withdraw its application and refile later in part because of concerns about the pipeline route through Moosehorn. But the board voted 5-3 to prohibit the company from withdrawing the application. The board had already held a week of public hearings and work sessions on the issue.

Wyatt said the company had no choice but to withdraw the application after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service denied the application. Under Maine law, the Department of Environmental Protection and the BEP cannot consider a permit request if the applicant lacks “title, right or interest” in the land. And without federal authorization, Downeast LNG has no access to use of the refuge land.

It was unclear Tuesday whether the BEP will have to restart the entire review process, including holding new public hearings. Wyatt said he hoped that the information gathered during the previous public hearings could be applied to the refiled application and that any additional hearings could focus on the new route.

Downeast LNG was not required to withdraw the federal application, because, unlike Maine, FERC allowed the company to propose several alternative routes in addition to the preferred route through Moosehorn.

Wyatt officials said the company hopes to finish work on its alternative route before refiling with the BEP in order to avoid having to withdraw the application again. But he and other Downeast LNG officials remain optimistic.

“These issues can and will be resolved,” company president Dean Girdis said in a statement. “We are continuing to work on all of the important steps involved in getting this project approved and built.”

But opponents of the project called the denial of use of Moosehorn land as “just the latest in a series of significant failures” for the company and the project’s investors.

“It’s time for [Downeast LNG] developer Girdis and company to recognize that without land or sea access, their project needs to relocate offshore and outside of Passamaquoddy Bay,” Linda Godfrey, coordinator of the group Save Passamaquoddy Bay, said in a statement.

“Whether it’s the denials … at the state level or this stunning denial at the federal level, the writing is on the wall: ‘No LNG in Passamaquoddy Bay,'” Godfrey said.

Canadian officials have threatened to block LNG tankers from passing through Canadian waters en route to the Robbinston facility.