LNG developers in the Northeast meet resistance

In response, more than 50 terminals have been proposed to serve the US, including two in the Bahamas, three in Mexico, three in Canada, and 10 offshore terminals in the US. All told, five facilities are under construction and 24 more have received approval, leading some analysts wondering how many more will really get built.

"Developers are racing to get to the market first and hoping the others will fall by the wayside," says Susan Reid of the Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental advocacy group in Boston.

But the Northeast has proven particularly thorny for LNG developers. While the region's gas supply is tight, its coastal population is relatively dense, environmentally aware, and politically astute. A proposed terminal in Fall River, Mass., is opposed by state officials, who passed a law restricting the passage of tankers under state bridges, including one en route to the proposed site. Local opposition nixed an LNG plan for the islands of Boston Harbor and pushed other developers further Down East, into ever remoter, poorer, and emptier parts of Maine: first Harpswell, Searsport, and Gouldsboro, now Perry, Robbinston, and Calais on the country's easternmost fringe.

The 'path of least resistance'

"The process has become like water: It's trying to seek the path of least resistance on its way to the bottom," says George Finch, city manager of Eastport, Maine, which borders the Pleasant Point site.

Developers targeting easternmost Maine – one of New England's poorest areas – received support from the Passamaquoddy tribal government (which would host the Pleasant Point terminal) and the voters of Robbinston (who voted 227-to-83 in support of siting a terminal there).

"We found the most supportive communities in this part of Maine," says Dean Girdis, president of Downeast LNG, the company behind the Robbinston proposal.

But even here, proposals have met resistance. Lobstermen, scallop fishermen, and salmon farmers all fear that the security zones around LNG tankers will displace them. Authorities in Eastport are concerned about disruptions at their port or on Route 190, the only road to and from their island city, which runs through the Quoddy LNG site.

"We're told that there really isn't anything that can go wrong," says Mr. Finch. "If that's the case, why isn't it being built in Portland or Boston where the customers ... are?"

Critics question whether any of the local terminals are needed, given that a LNG terminal is already under construction in Saint John, New Brunswick, to serve the New England market. Two proposed offshore terminals near Gloucester, Mass., have been permitted, and one is expected to deliver gas within the year.

But building excess capacity helps respond to unexpected demand, says Mariano Gurfinkel of the Center for Energy Economics at the University of Texas, Austin. "Terminals can cost upwards of $500 million. I doubt that their proponents are going to do this if they don't think they would make money."

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