Federal lawmakers announced plans to propose legislation to give local governments veto power on proposed liquid natural gas facilities, heeding the concerns of Maryland officials battling a terminal planned for Baltimore?s Sparrows Point peninsula.
U.S. Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin, both Maryland Democrats, said Tuesday that the bill would give state and local governments greater input in the LNG approval process, currently the sole authority of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The news came one day after Gov. Martin O?Malley and Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith criticized the process as exclusive and invasive.
Smith and O?Malley said they fear their voices won?t be heard on the $400 million facility planned off the Patapsco River near the Key Bridge.
“No one knows the local communities like the local officials,” Smith said. “I think it?s time we look at whether it?s in the public interest to give [the commission] such absolute authority over the LNG industry.”
Five LNG terminals operate in the United States, and the Federal Energy Regulation Commission has approved 16 more. The Sparrows Point project, proposed by Virginia-based AES Corp., is one of nine other on-shore terminals proposed nationally, according to the commission.
Mikulski blasted the proposal ? which calls for super-chilled LNG to be hauled into the harbor, then be revaporized and sent through an 88-mile pipeline into southern Pennsylvania via Harford County ? at a House hearing Monday on the Coast Guard?s abilities to secure the plants.
Consistent with state and county officials ? who are facing AES in federal court on their own legislative attempts to block the proposal ? Mikulski said the plant would be an attractive terrorism target and could present safety risks for neighbors about 1.2 miles away.
AES and FERC officials testified on the industry?s exemplary safety record. Commissioned by the company, former White House counter-terrorism advisor Richard Clarke penned a report dispelling security concerns at the Sparrows Point site.
