Outer Brewster LNG proponents hire security expert Clarke
BOSTON --A company proposing to build an LNG terminal at the edge of Boston Harbor has hired Richard Clarke, a former top terrorism adviser in the Reagan, Clinton and both Bush administrations, to testify on behalf of the project during a key legislative hearing next week.
Clarke, who as a former National Security Council staffer accused President Bush of failing to adequately protect the nation in the days before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, will address safety questions arising from the proposal to build the terminal on Outer Brewster Island. The plan is backed by
"He has studied and will be reporting on the public safety profile of Outer Brewster Island as an LNG facility," said Rob Gray, a spokesman for AES Battery Rock LLC. The Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy is slated to hold a hearing on the issue next Wednesday.
Gray said he had not reviewed Clarke's testimony so he was not aware of its full scope. Clarke, a Boston native, did not immediately return a call to the Virginia security consulting company he now heads.
One opponent of the project, Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, questioned the validity of any analysis Clarke may provide since he is paid by AES.
Save the Harbor supports LNG supply expansion in New England, but fears that allowing a second unloading terminal at Outer Brewster will double -- not reduce -- tanker traffic in the harbor. Tankers already run through the inner harbor to reach the Distrigas terminal in Everett.
The group is calling for development of a regional LNG plan for New England, a region dependent on outside energy sources to meet its winter power demands.
"I don't see how any expert could testify how having two LNG terminals in Boston Harbor decreases the risk of anything," said Bruce Berman, a spokesman for the group.
Under the AES plan, additional tankers would stay out of Boston Harbor while offloading liquefied natural gas at Outer Brewster. The gas would be stored in two tanks built into granite quarries, before being vaporized and sent into an existing undersea pipeline 1.2 miles away.
The site would not have the warm-water discharge of competing LNG terminals suggested for buoys off Gloucester, about 35 miles north of Boston, a concern of the region's fishermen and lobstermen. It also would be more remote than the existing facility in Everett, just outside of Boston, as well as a proposed LNG terminal the federal government has approved for Fall River.
The Legislature is involved because AES needs a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate, since the island is currently under the control of the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. It is the second-outermost among the string of islands in the Boston Harbor Island park system.
AES has said the state would receive $10 million annually in lease payments from the operator, while the project would generate $5 million annually in local taxes.
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On the Net:
AES Corp.: http://www.aes.com/aes/index?pagehome
Save the Harbor/Save the Bay: http://www.savetheharbor.org/
Good Harbor Consulting LLC: http://www.goodharbor.net/index.html
