AGs, Mayor tackle LNG issue
Daniel Fowler, Herald News Staff Reporter,
9/9/2004
Two petitions, one by Mayor Edward M. Lambert Jr. and the other
by the attorneys general from Massachusetts and Rhode Island,
were filed with the federal Department of Transportation Wednesday
in hopes of curtailing Hess LNG's plan to construct a liquefied
natural gas facility in the city.
Though they are two distinct petitions, they both contend that the Department of Transportation has not lived up to its 1979 mandate from Congress to develop "location standards" for the siting of natural gas facilities.
R.I. Attorney General Patrick
L. Lynch and Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly
said in their petition that in setting the standard, Congress
called on the DOT to take into account "the existing and
projected population and demographic characteristics of the location"
and "the need to encourage remote siting." But according
to the attorneys general and Lambert, the DOT generally ignored
that mandate by issuing safety standards that don't truly address
the issue of location.
Corporation Counsel Thomas McGuire, who filed the petition on
behalf of Lambert and the city, said the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission review of Hess LNG's proposal should be halted until
the DOT adopts specific regulations. "It is our position
that until the DOT issues requirements, FERC does not have the
ability to issue valid (approval) for the project to move forward,"
McGuire said. Within a week, McGuire said the city would formally
request that the FERC halt its review of the project "until
regulations are in place."
McGuire said if the FERC doesn,t agree to the city's demand,
a lawsuit could follow.
In their petitions, Reilly, Lynch and Lambert gave specific recommendations to DOT that would address their concerns about LNG facilities being sited in densely populated areas. "Today, I joined with Mayor Ed Lambert and Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch in asking the federal Department of Transportation to adopt standards that generally prohibit the siting of LNG import and storage facilities in urban areas, where more than 5,000 people are living or working within a one-mile radius," Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly said in a statement. "Unless it is deemed absolutely necessary and no other options are available, it makes no sense to place a facility, such as the one proposed in Weaver's Cove, the middle of a densely populated area."
While similar, Lambert's petition
is even more specific. Some of the regulations the mayor suggests
the DOT adopt include forbidding the siting of an LNG facility
within one mile of a school, day care center, nursing home or
hospital, within 1,500 feet of roadway servicing more than 7,500
vehicles per day or a proposed or existing commuter rail line.
Lambert's proposal would also prevent facilities nationwide from
being sited near heavily used bridges or in densely populated
areas.
If adopted, such standards would eliminate from consideration
the site off North Main Street where Hess LNG hopes to construct
its facility.
DOT spokesman Damon Hill said
he hadn't seen the petitions. "We will look at it and evaluate
what is in the petition and we will make a recommendation,"
Hill said. But Hill said the FERC has "the final say in
deciding where facilities are going to be located."