Experts say that unyielding residents who fight plans for new energy facilities ? such as those battling a proposed liquefied natural gas plant in Baltimore County ? likely will be among the toughest roadblocks facing the nation?s impending fuel shortages.
A panel of energy experts at a Maryland Chamber of Commerce conference in Ocean City Monday said the NIMBY syndrome ? as in not in my backyard ? will present serious and expensive challenges as the industry looks to build terminals for alternative energy sources.
And, citing the lengthy federal approval processes for such facilities, that may come sooner than residents like to think, they said.
“In Maryland, for the foreseeable future, there is no worry,” said Paul Allen, vice president of corporate affairs at Constellation Energy. “But as you think about the planning horizon for building new-generation facilities, the fact that we?re nearing declining reserve margins, that?s where you would begin to become concerned.”
In Baltimore County?s Dundalk, that time is now. Residents are battling a Virginia-based firm?s proposal to ship ultra-chilled LNG to a terminal at the Sparrows Point shipyard, then reheat it into a gas and send it through an 87-mile pipeline into southern Pennsylvania.
Residents have hired an attorney, Washington-based Bart Fisher, who said he is willing to challenge the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which gave the federal government exclusive authority to determine LNG terminal sites, all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.
The federal commission that approves LNG terminals has only denied one application so far, but such legal battles drive up the cost of infrastructure.Panelists said they expect similar fights in other communities as other energy plants, whether wind farms, hydropower or LNG terminals, are proposed to augment the country’s natural gas supply, which they estimated to meet the nation?s demand for the next 20 years.
“I?ve yet to meet someone who said, ?Put a natural gas line on my property, or put an overhead line on my property,? ” said Michael Frederic, director of operations at the Dominion LNG terminal in Cove Point, which is preparing for a $9 billion expansion. “Nobody in the state of Maryland would embrace windmill farms up and down the side of the Bay.”
The panel also discussed the need for policy-makers to determine their priorities: the environment, affordability or reliable production.
