A federal judge ruled late Friday that Baltimore County can ban liquid natural gas terminals in environmentally sensitive areas ? a major victory in officials? efforts to block a controversial proposal for a plant in Sparrows Point.
U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett?s decision upholds a county law adding LNG terminals to a list of facilities banned within 1,000 feet of Chesapeake Bay wetlands. A state environmental commission earlier this month also approved the measure targeting a $400 million facility near the Key Bridge planned by Virgina-based AES Corp.
“It?s a pretty wonderful moment for Baltimore County,” County Executive Jim Smith said. “The county?s position with respect to environmental regulations was supported by evidence and was an appropriate and reasonable action.”
Officials from AES were not immediately available for comment.
Bennett earlier this year overturned a similar county law banning LNG terminals within five miles of homes, ruling state rights are preempted under the federal Natural Gas Act except under three environmental statutes, including the Coastal Zone Management Act.
“The prohibition of LNG facilities that import LNG by waterborne vessel is consistent with and narrowly tailored to the goals of Maryland?s Critical Areas Protection Program,” Bennett wrote. “That program may address the risk of spillage into the Chesapeake Bay of liquefied natural gas as well as the dangers of coastal degradation.”
AES ? which has argued that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has the exclusive authority to determine LNG siting ? is planning to ship super-cold liquid natural gas on tankers through the Bay to a plant at Sparrows Point, where it will be heated, re-vaporized and sent through an 87-mile pipeline into southern Pennsylvania.
The plan, about two miles from houses in Turners Station, is one of nine onshore LNG terminals proposed nationally, not including five already operating.
The state?s Critical Area Commission voted unanimously earlier this month to adopt the county law into its Coastal Zone Management Plan, an amendment AES argued in court requires approval from the federal Secretary of Commerce.
Bennett ruled the commission?s approval does not constitute a change in the state?s program, but “rather an implementation of it at the local level.”
