Federal judges on Monday overturned a Baltimore County law banning liquefied natural gas plants in sensitive coastal areas, marking the second failed challenge to a proposed LNG facility on Sparrows Point.
A panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals ? one level below the Supreme Court ? said the federal government has the exclusive authority to determine the siting of LNG plants. The ruling is a victory for Virginia-based AES Corp., which is planning a $400 million facility near the Key Bridge.
Company officials said they plan to issue a statement on the ruling?s “broad implications” Tuesday.
But county officials vowed to continue fighting the plant, where liquefied natural gas on tankers would be revaporized and sent through Harford County and into southern Pennsylvania in an 87-mile pipeline.
Residents and elected officials at virtually every level said the dredging required to accommodate the tankers could disturb toxic sediment in the Baltimore Harbor and worried the plant could be an attractive target for terrorism.
“Obviously County Executive Smith is extremely disappointed,” said spokesman Don Mohler. “He has asked the county attorney to review in detail the ruling and wants to assure everyone in Dundalk and in east Baltimore County and the region he will continue to fight this corporation.”
The county council passed a zoning law in 2006 requiring LNG facilities to be at least five miles from residential zones, effectively blocking AES? proposal. When that law was overturned in district court, the council added LNG plants to a list of banned facilities in the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area.
The law was upheld in federal court, but company officials appealed, arguing the federal Natural Gas Act gives the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission the exclusive authority to determine LNG sites.
In a 10-page ruling, the three judge appellate panel agreed.
Examiner staff writer Matt Santoni contributed to this report.
