A federal judge overturned a Baltimore County zoning law restricting liquefied natural gas terminals to at least five miles from homes ? a victory for a Virginia-based energy company proposing such a facility at the Sparrows Point peninsula near the Key Bridge.
U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett ruled Tuesday that the zoning law adopted by the County Council in May is unenforceable and pre-empted by the Natural Gas Act, which gives the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission the exclusive authority to determine if and where a company can build an LNG terminal.
Energy firm AES Corp. asked the court to examine the zoning law as it seeks federal approval of a $400 million LNG terminal at Sparrows Point, less than two miles from homes in the Turners Station neighborhood. County officials said they were “disappointed” by the ruling, but plan to pursue other legislative proposals to derail the project, including adding LNG terminals to a list of banned facilities in the county?s Chesapeake Bay Critical Area.
“This won?t deter us at all,” county spokesman Don Mohler said. “We?re still going full-speed ahead.”
Under AES? plan, massive tankers will carry LNG to the peninsula, where it will be heated and revaporized, then transported in an 87-mile pipeline through Harford County and into southern Pennsylvania. Company officials said they consider the site remote, the process safe and estimate the project will generate $13 million in annual state and local taxes.
Challengers allege the dredging required to accommodate the tankers will disrupt contaminated sediment at the bottom of Baltimore?s harbor and fear an explosion.
