ST. STEPHEN, New Brunswick (AP) – The Maine Board of Environmental Protection has rejected a U.S. company’s request to withdraw its application for a liquefied natural gas terminal that has drawn fire from New Brunswickers and the Canadian government.

The board voted 5-3 Thursday to reject a request by Downeast LNG to withdraw its application and later resubmit it with additional information.

The planned LNG terminal is directly across Passamaquoddy Bay from the St. Andrews, New Brunswick, where a local citizen’s group has been campaigning against the development.

The Downeast proposal, along with Quoddy Bay LNG’s plan for a terminal near Eastport, Maine, has prompted Canada’s federal government to openly consider legislation banning supertankers from the Bay of Fundy.

The president of Downeast LNG, Dean Girdis, said he is disappointed with the board’s decision but he still thinks the board will grant the company permission to build the terminal.

The Board of Environmental Protection, which staged public hearings earlier this year, will be releasing its decision next year as planned.

“We wanted to ensure that the (board) had a full record, including information from the Maine Department of Marine Resources and data from other sources, before taking action on our application,” said Girdis.

“While we would have welcomed the opportunity to provide additional information, we believe that our applications are thorough and complete.”

A member of Save Passamaquoddy Bay, a citizen’s group in Maine opposed to the proposed terminal, is welcoming the board’s decision.

“They would be diminishing the significance of permit hearings, while simultaneously creating unreasonable expense and burden to the state, interveners, and the public,” said Robert Godfrey.

“Even though (Downeast LNG) knew the exact issues and requirements they needed to address long before they filed their permit application, they chose not to answer a number of critical concerns during the application and hearing process.”

AP-ES-09-20-07 2034EDT