Newport naval center new ally for Fall River
The fight could’ve been over in July, when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, after what it called “the most extensive effort ever” made to consider safety issues, approved a plan by Hess LNG/Weaver’s Cove Energy to put a liquefied natural gas terminal in Fall River.
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More than two dozen interveners, including major energy companies, environmental groups, and Bay State and Rhode Island officials, had fought in vain against the plan. They’d tried to have FERC take other, more palatable LNG proposals into consideration; that too failed.
But two months later, Fall River Mayor Edward M. Lambert Jr. sounds optimistic. No one’s given up, he says, and new developments all seem to undermine the LNG plan.
“I think that we continue to build momentum in our opposition, and it seems more and more difficult to believe that Hess will get what they want here,” Lambert said in an interview. “We won’t stop pressing the case until there’s absolutely no life left in this project.”
As things stand, the Weaver’s Cove plan is in limbo. Under FERC rules, appeals of the July decision had to be filed and dealt with by Sept. 15, but just three days before the deadline, the agency extended the consideration period indefinitely.
The city of Fall River has a rehearing request pending in conjunction with the Massachusetts and Rhode Island attorneys general, and Hess LNG has sought a rehearing as well, to amend some of the terms imposed on the project by FERC.
A new, powerful ally has also come forward, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, which has sought a rehearing on the grounds that LNG tanker traffic – and the required security zone – would “significantly and adversely impact in-water testing” of submarines, torpedoes and sonar systems at the center.
Lambert said FERC’s extension of the process may signal that agency members “have been taken aback by the U.S. Navy’s request.”
“I look at it as a positive; maybe it means they are taking a second look at this,” Lambert said. In any case, the mayor said, “I think that time is our friend, and I welcome delays, because delays cost Hess more money and provide a greater uncertainty about this project.”
Jim Grasso, however, spokesman for the Weaver’s Cove developers and a 27-year industry veteran, said an extension is “a very normal part of the procedure for these kinds of projects.”
“We, ourselves, asked for a rehearing, so we don’t see this as any kind of roadblock,” Grasso said. “The real key issue is that we have the certificate to construct and operate, the even more key issue is that we need the gas, and we need it by a certain timetable.”
Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, one of the most vocal opponents of local LNG projects, said the “changed circumstances” – including a new proposal for an LNG terminal in the outer reaches of Boston Harbor – could sway FERC, but he doubts it.
“There’s no question, I think, that we have an uphill battle here,” he said. “We are up against an administration that appears to be, for all purposes, hell-bent on assisting these energy companies. … You’re going against some very difficult forces and a mindset that goes against the very real concerns we have as a community.”
But FERC is only one battleground in this war; to try to ensure the Weaver’s Cove terminal is never built, opponents – including Lynch – are working to undermine it on multiple fronts.
As Lambert sees it, one particularly strong factor working against the project was the successful inclusion by U.S. Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.) of $500,000 for improvements to Fall River’s Brightman Street Bridge in the 2006 federal transportation bill.
The bridge is being replaced and was supposed to be demolished, but the transportation bill requires it to be maintained for use by pedestrians, bicyclists and emergency services. And LNG tankers can’t fit under the bridge.
“That in itself ought to make this project moot,” Lambert said.
Grasso, however, countered that there’s “a lot of misinformation” going around about the bridge. The reason a new bridge is being built, he added, is that the old bridge has been identified as a “safety concern to waterway traffic,” and if it’s a hazard, it shouldn’t be maintained even if money has been allocated to do so.
“I think that has to be reinvestigated, and I’m not the one to speculate what the outcome would be,” Grasso said.
Then there’s red tape: As part of his effort to kill LNG projects with “a thousand paper cuts,” Lynch is rounding up support from all the potentially affected towns to make it as hard as possible for Hess to get the necessary permits to dredge a passage for tankers.
And there’s the PR war being fought on both fronts. Opponents talk about the potential for terrorist attacks and mass casualties, and about huge disruptions to traffic and commerce as bridges close and boats have to be cleared to let the LNG tankers pass. Hess has its comprehensive “LNG: Know the Facts” campaign, with print, broadcast and Web ads to raise awareness of New England’s energy shortage and of LNG’s decades-long safety record.
Area residents have been barraged with misinformation about LNG, Grasso said, and even though Hess has been working for years now to counter that with the truth, it’s been crucial to keep up the effort, especially with print ads.
“I think the ads were successful, and we have received many phone calls questioning different things in the ads and the fliers that we sent out as well,” Grasso said.
Focusing on the energy crisis also helps, Grasso added. Already, the ISO New England has predicted the region could face brownouts by 2008 and possible blackouts by 2010 if it doesn’t boost its power-generating capabilities, he noted. And now Hurricane Katrina has highlighted the perils of relying too heavily on the oil coming in through the Gulf Coast.
“What this hurricane showed is we cannot put all our eggs in one basket,” he said. “We’re really in quite a tough situation.”
At the University of Rhode Island, meanwhile, Malcolm L. Spaulding, a professor of ocean engineering with an expertise in the cleanup of oil spills, has seized on the controversy as an opportunity to teach students about energy policy and the environment.
Having studied the properties of LNG, the industry’s track record, and the structure of LNG tankers – they’re typically double-hulled, with multiple compartments, much sturdier and spill-proof than oil tankers, he said – Spaulding is convinced that the Armageddon scenarios some LNG opponents have put forth are exaggerated and extremely unlikely.
But Spaulding has also looked at what could happen in less extreme scenarios, in the event of a partial spill due to an accident or a deliberate attack: LNG spreading along the water, gradually evaporating, mixing with air until it could, potentially, catch fire.
Depending on the direction of the wind and the size of the spill, the harm could be substantial.
“LNG spills are very low-risk but very high-consequence events,” Spaulding said.
Communities need to carefully assess the actual risks, the controls in place to mitigate potential disasters, and the alternatives, he said, and they need to weigh the pros and cons of different ways of bringing LNG into the region, given the multiple options out there.
To focus his students’ own efforts, Spaulding has come up with a hypothetical new LNG terminal plan, for an offshore site in Block Island Sound. They’re doing simulations and gathering information on similar proposals nationwide. You can see the course Web site at www.oce.uri.edu/oce495.
