Altered LNG plan still ignites opposition
Offshore site near Fall River
For years, Fall River residents and political leaders have fought a plan to bring a liquefied natural gas terminal to the banks of the Taunton River, fearing that an accident or terrorist attack could somehow ignite the gas and threaten nearby homes.
But this week, when Weaver's Cove Energy introduced an alternative plan to unload the gas at an offshore port, it made little progress toward alleviating public concerns.
"This is like a stone's throw away," said US Representative James P. McGovern, a leading opponent of the plan. "Mount Hope Bay is not the Gulf of Mexico."
Opposition to the Weaver's Cove project remains so heated that people are also balking at the prospect of an offshore port and the continued prospect of LNG storage tanks on the waterfront. They object, even though a natural gas tank has been in a Fall River neighborhood for decades, said a Weaver's Cove spokesman.
"Fall River has had [an LNG storage] tank on Bay Street in a neighborhood for the last 30 years, and it has operated safety and securely without incident," said the spokesman, Jim Grasso.
While the attorneys general of Massachusetts and Rhode Island have sought to ban siting of LNG facilities near dense populations, natural gas is not explosive in liquid form.
For an accident to cause an LNG disaster, Grasso said, the inner and outer tanks would have to be pierced, liquid would to have to leak and be heated to vapor form, and the vapor would need an ignition source. And then most of it would not have the right proportion of gas and air to explode, he said.
But that is of little comfort to skeptics eyeing the Weaver's Cove proposal.
"I wish they would just admit that they've lost, pack their bags, and leave us," McGovern said.
The company's original proposal called for LNG tankers to travel up the Taunton River to unload liquefied gas on the shore, prompting concerns about public safety.
Though that plan was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2005, the battle continued. McGovern blocked federal funding for the demolition of the old Brightman Bridge, so that bulky LNG tankers would be unable to travel the Taunton.
Weaver's Cove countered by proposing smaller tankers. Then the Coast Guard rejected the project, saying tankers would not be able to safely navigate the river and its bridges.
This week, Weaver's Cove, a subsidiary of Hess LNG, floated the idea of taking LNG deliveries at a berth in Mount Hope Bay about a mile from shore and then shipping liquefied natural gas through a 4-mile pipeline to storage tanks on the banks of Fall River.
Unlike most offshore LNG projects, the pipeline would carry the gas in condensed, liquefied form, so that it could be vaporized on shore or shipped by truck as liquid. Weaver's Cove is still testing whether it could feasibly and cost-effectively ship the liquefied gas, but officials hope a pipeline would suppress neighbors' fears.
"If moving LNG tanker unloading operations offshore proves technically and economically feasible, it would address many of the community's concerns while providing the benefits of jobs, taxes, and lower energy prices," Gordon Shearer, chief executive of Weaver's Cove Energy, said in a statement.
The state's top environmental official did not leap to embrace the alternative plan.
"The governor and I remain concerned about public safety and will review the proposal carefully," said Ian A. Bowles, secretary of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. "It's just too early to say."
Environmentalists also worry that dredging the Taunton River to submerge a pipeline could stir up sediment and disturb fisheries, said Sue Reid, a staff attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation, which has opposed the project.
"They're going to have to bury that pipeline in a riverbed of a river that is under consideration right now for permanent designation as a wild and scenic river," Reid said.
