ST. ANDREWS, New Brunswick (AP) – A New Brunswick mayor stormed out of a meeting organized by a Maine liquefied natural gas developer on Wednesday, saying he’d heard enough about the project.
John Craig told representatives of Downeast LNG that the Canadian government won’t let them bring tankers to proposed storage tanks near St. Andrews.
The developers want to build a liquefied natural gas terminal on the Maine shore of Passamaquoddy Bay and they faced some of their strongest critics Wednesday in the tourist town of St. Andrews.
Dean Girdis, president of Downeast LNG, told a crowd of about 300 people they would hardly notice an LNG terminal operating about three miles across the bay. He said the $400 million project would bring a ship a week to the area and that the terminal would have minimal impact on the environment.
But critics of Girdis’ plans told the developer to find another place for his project.
“You have 3,000 miles (of Maine coast) to choose from, just not here,” said Nancy McIntosh, a former advisor to the former Liberal Cabinet minister Andy Scott.
She said no one in Ottawa supports the passage of LNG tankers into Passamaquoddy Bay.
David Thompson, a spokesman for the Conservation Council of New Brunswick’s, said people living around Passamaquoddy Bay thrive on its natural resources, not industrial development.
“There’s no place for LNG in Passamaquoddy Bay,” he told the developers.
Some people in the crowd wore “Stop LNG” buttons.
Downeast LNG’s plans call for the construction of a 1,300-yard-long pier about 21/2 miles from the St. Andrews shore.
The plans also call for the construction of gas storage tanks on the Maine shore at Mill Cove, about three miles across the bay from St. Andrews.
The LNG opponents want Prime Minister Stephen Harper to stop Downeast LNG and two other companies that are developing LNG terminals in the area.
Harper has said he’s opposed to the projects, as has the area’s Member of Parliament, Greg Thompson, who is also a federal cabinet minister.
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