Legislative leaders quietly reviving LNG terminal proposal
BOSTON --Legislative leaders in the House and Senate are quietly reviving a contentious plan to allow the construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal on a Boston Harbor Island.
On Wednesday, during an informal session led by Senate President Robert Travaglini, D-Boston, the Senate voted to force the bill out of a committee where it had been sent to die earlier this year.
The House took similar action last month.
The procedural moves make it more likely the bill could now reach the floor and a vote by the members of the House and Senate. Travaglini has already said "it's certainly something that would warrant my interest and attention," while his House counterpart, Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, D-Boston, has said he favors a committee to study several proposals for siting LNG terminals.
The bill proposes leasing the state-owned Outer Brewster Island and bidding out construction rights so the eventual winner can construct a terminal for receiving shipments of liquefied natural gas. The island is at the outer edge of Boston Harbor, near an undersea gas pipeline.
The legislation is being proposed by a subsidiary of Virginia-based AES Corp.
Environmentalists oppose the bill, saying it could hurt the ecosystem and set back the process of creating and protecting the harbor islands. Rival energy companies have also complained the bill is crafted in ways that would favor a bid by AES.
The bill's unusual legislative history would indicate it has the support of powerful figures within the Statehouse.
In March, the Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures and State Assets voted to send the bill to a "study" -- the equivalent of a legislative graveyard for bills on Beacon Hill. The bill was expected to languish there until the end of the session.
Then in May, the House agreed to dislodge the legislation and send it to another, more sympathetic committee -- the Committee on Telecommunication, Utilities and Energy. The chairman of that committee, Rep. Brian Dempsey, D-Haverhill, is also the bill's lead sponsor.
On Wednesday, the Senate also voted to get the bill moving once more.
Instead of sending it just to Dempsey's committee, however, the Senate voted to also move the bill to a second committee, the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture.
The Senate chairs of both committees, Sen. Michael Morrissey, D-Quincy, and Sen. Pamela Resor, D-Acton, publicly oppose the bill.
Opponents believe they have the support of enough lawmakers to reject the bill even if it reaches the floor. It would require a vote of two-thirds of the House and Senate because it involves the transfer of public land to a private developer.
"It's a bad idea to use our harbor islands for this purpose, and more than one-third of the Legislature has signed a statement saying so," Janet Domenitz, executive director of the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, said in a written statement.
