One of the would-be developers of a liquefied natural gas facility in Washington County is asking state regulators to dismiss a competing proposal.

Two companies – Downeast LNG and Quoddy Bay LNG – are seeking state and federal authorization to build large liquefied natural gas import and storage terminals within several miles of each other on Passamaquoddy Bay.

Both projects have encountered delays and opposition along the way, and neither is being actively reviewed by the state.

But this week, officials at Downeast LNG and a group of its supporters sent letters to the Maine Board of Environmental Protection urging it to deny the competing application on grounds that Quoddy Bay’s stalled review could affect the board’s review of other LNG projects – and presumably Downeast’s.

“Their application has gone through four delays,” said Dean Girdis, president of Downeast LNG, which is an intervenor in the Quoddy Bay application. “I don’t think it’s fair for the parties and the intervenors, including ourselves, that the application keeps being delayed.”

Officials with Quoddy Bay declined to comment on the core arguments within the letters, saying they will submit a formal response to the BEP soon. But a company representative took strong issue with the way the request was made.

The original motion to deny came not from Downeast LNG but from a group called Robbinston Residents in Support of Downeast LNG. But attorneys with Downeast LNG helped the Robbinston group draft the letter, a fact that makes Quoddy Bay President Donald Smith bristle.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Smith called the letter a “negative attack” and accused Downeast LNG of working to stop a project that would benefit the residents of Perry and the Passamaquoddy Tribe. Quoddy Bay developed its proposal with the support of leaders of the Passamaquoddy Tribe.

“I think it’s sad that Downeast is working to pit residents of one community against another community,” said Smith. “Up until now, we developers have been pursuing actively our own projects and not working to hurt the other project.”

Both Quoddy Bay’s and Downeast LNG’s project, which is proposed for Robbinston, have gone through the regulatory review process in stops and starts.

The BEP held a week of public hearings on Downeast’s application last year only to have the company withdraw its application in large part because the planned pipeline route fell through. Girdis said the company is awaiting the completion of a waterway suitability study by the U.S. Coast Guard and a subsequent environmental impact study before refiling with the state.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, meanwhile, notified Quoddy Bay earlier this year that it was suspending the review of the company’s application because of insufficient information. Quoddy Bay officials have said they are working to submit the information needed to restart the review.

In the letter filed with the BEP earlier this week, an attorney with the “Robbinston Residents” group, Clifford Goodall, called Quoddy Bay’s requested postponements “an abuse of the BEP hearing process” that forces intervenors and state agencies to spend resources monitoring the application.

Downeast officials pointed out that a company called Bear Creek Investments had previously filed paperwork urging the BEP to deny Downeast’s application. Smith owns Bear Creek Investments, which holds land adjacent to the site where Downeast hopes to build.

But Quoddy Bay officials pointed out that the motion to dismiss was made null after Downeast moved the location of its proposed storage tanks, thereby addressing Bear Creek’s concerns.

kmiller@bangordailynews.net

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