BANGOR (AP) – A developer seeking to build a liquefied natural gas terminal in Robbinston says it plans to refile its application with state environmental regulators after selecting a new pipeline route that would bypass the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge.

Downeast LNG announced last month that it had withdrawn its pending application with the Maine Board of Environmental Protection, saying it expected to refile by year’s end and that the withdrawal would not affect the timetable for the project.

Late last week, federal officials denied Downeast LNG’s request to allow about four miles of its proposed pipeline between Robbinston and Baileyville to pass through the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge. The denial said the pipeline would impact wildlife and public use of the refuge and was inconsistent with current policies.

Company officials said they anticipated the denial and were looking into alternate routes for the pipeline linking the terminal to the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline that runs from Nova Scotia to Massachusetts.

“We don’t see (the denial) to be significant. We consider it to be part of the process,” said Rob Wyatt, vice president with Downeast LNG, noting that the pipeline route on either side of the refuge would probably remain the same.

The BEP, which had already held a week of public hearings and work sessions on the project, voted last month to prohibit the company from withdrawing the application.

Wyatt said the company had no choice but to withdraw the application after the Fish and Wildlife Service’s denial. Maine law requires that a permit applicant have “title, right or interest” in the land, which in the case of Moosehorn would mean federal authorization.

It was unclear whether the BEP will have to restart the entire review process, including holding new public hearings. Wyatt said he hoped that information gathered during previous public hearings could be applied to the refiled application and that any additional hearings could focus on the new route.

Downeast LNG was not required to withdraw its federal application because the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, unlike Maine, allowed the company to propose several alternative routes in addition to the preferred route through Moosehorn.

Downeast LNG is seeking authorization from the state and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to build a 320,000-cubic-meter LNG import terminal, storage tanks, a regasification plant and a pier on an 80-acre site at Mill Cove in Robbinston.

A second company, Quoddy Bay LNG, has submitted plans with regulators to build an even larger LNG facility on Passamaquoddy tribal land in nearby Pleasant Point.

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