{Maryland} State to let dredge deal die to stop LNG terminal

Baltimore County Digest ^ | September 1, 2006 | Laura Barnhardt

[thackney]

In an effort to stop a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal on Sparrows Point, Maryland officials said yesterday that they will not extend a contract with the operators of a shipyard to allow dredge spoils to be deposited at Hart Miller Island.

Barletta Willis owns the Sparrows Point property where a global power company is proposing to build an LNG facility. The company received permission from the Maryland Port Authority in October 2004 to dispose of 600,000 cubic yards of dredge from a shipping channel between the Patapsco River and Bear Creek at Hart Miller Island. The contract expires at the end of January.

Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan announced yesterday that the state will not extend the agreement, in part, because LNG opponents fear that if the channel were dredged, the company that wants to build the LNG facility would have an easier time receiving federal approval for the project.

"This is one part of the broader effort to oppose the LNG terminal and to bring the kind of development to Sparrows Point that the Dundalk community wants," Flanagan said.

AES Corp. has proposed building a $400 million LNG terminal at the former Bethlehem Steel shipyard, where shipments of the liquefied gas would arrive in tankers and be turned back into gas and then pumped through a 87-mile pipeline from Sparrows Point to southern Pennsylvania.

The proposal calls for dredging about 2.5 million to 4 million cubic yards to accommodate the tankers that would import the liquefied gas.

Opponents fear the dredging would disturb toxic substances settled deep in the muck.

Barletta Willis received its dredging permits for a ship repair facility, according to state officials.

LNG opponents said they were pleased with yesterday's news about Hart Miller Island.

[wvobiwan]

More elitest, environmental fascism from the Democrat-controlled Baltimore and MD legislatures.

Sounds like a LNG terminal in Baltimore would provide boatload of jobs, and spark a resurgence in Baltimore's excellent industrial harbor district.

The lefties prefer to keep the working class elsewhere, preferably in the ghettos the Democrat programs for the poor have created for them. No sense allowing economic expansion, the rich already have their money...

[Wristpin]

Time for a NIMBY tax.

[cinives]

You forget that the Dems will not be able to blame the high cost of NG on Republicans if this terminal (and others) are built. It removes a campaign issue for Dems.

[RicocheT]

I expect MD and its neighbor states to cry over high natural gas prices and expect others to subsidize them, despite rejecting the best way to lower prices - allow imports of LNG.

[Bean Counter]

Fine. Don't build it. And I don't want to hear any bitching about how cold it is next winter, either...

[patapsco]

Clearly, you don't know the economic make-up of neighborhoods around this proposed LNG terminal -- and don't know how we vote!

Dundalk and Sparrows Point are solidly blue collar and were the KEY votes in electing Maryland's first Republican governor since Spiro Agnew. That's why this GOP governor, Bob Ehrlich, is pulling the developer's dredging permit and supporting our working class communities.

By the way, the LNG terminal at Sparrows Point would create only 40 full-time jobs. And most of those would be held by white-collar engineering and petrochemical management types whose idea of hard labor consists of readjusting their computer screen.