Baltimore County is thinking twice about a golden goose ? one with a potential bite.
The AES Corp., a Virginia-based power company, has proposed the construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal at Sparrows Point that has drawn the protest of many county residents, government officials and agencies. For the community, however, turning down the terminal could mean turning away more than $50 million in taxes and both direct and indirect economic impact annually.
Others, however, say that possible long-term rewards such as attracting other outside businesses outweigh any large financial benefit in the near future.
“From an economic development point of view, there actually is a negative impact, long term, to having an LNG plant at the Sparrows Point peninsula,” said Fronda Cohen, marketing and communications director of the Baltimore County Department of Economic Development. “It can act as a deterrent to the type of 21st-century industry we want to bring to Sparrows Point.”
Dan Mohler, the director of communications for the BCDED, said the department feels that the project is not environmentally safe and is a safety threat to residents, saying it?s the “wrong plant, wrong place, wrong time.”
The proposed project is tied up in legal matters in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, but that doesn?t stop Kent Morton, the project director of AES, from trying to advance the cause of his company.
In a document Morton gave The Examiner, AES indicates the direct and indirect economic impact from the project construction would be about $216 million. The document uses adjusted economic indicators from developed areas similar to the Sparrows Point proposal, providing a conservative approach to the millions that could be put on the table.
This includes construction jobs with salaries ranging from $25,000 to $150,000. The plant would employ around 59 full-time workers with a total payroll of $3.5 million. The annual impact on the community is estimated to be around $36 million. The plant should also generate nearly $2 million in taxes during construction and about $13 million in taxes each operating year after.
With the LNG plant becoming such a polarizing issue, Ecron Corp., a Bethesda-based ethanol and alternative fuels company, has also thrown its hat in the ring to develop a parcel of land on Sparrows Point near the proposed LNG development. This facility would also pump cash into the local economy. As reported earlier in The Examiner, the facility would cost around $166 million to construct.
“Right now the next step is that the Department of the Environment reviews the permit application and we take in the testimony given by the public,” said Bob Bollinger, deputy director of communications for the Maryland Department of the Environment. “We are now involved in investigating and follow-up with the process.”
