AUGUSTA (AP) – State environmental officials have said again a developer can’t withdraw an application for a liquefied natural gas facility in the coastal community of Robbinston.

But the Board of Environmental Protection, in rejecting the withdrawal bid by Downeast LNG for a second time, is putting off consideration of the proposal, possibly until next summer.

The suspension could allow the board to take in information on alternative pipeline routes.

Downeast LNG notified the board of its desire to withdraw its application after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected the company’s request to build roughly 4 miles of the pipeline through Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge.

Downeast LNG is seeking state and federal authorization 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 on Passamaquoddy Bay.

A second company, Quoddy Bay LNG, is seeking authorization for a larger facility in nearby Pleasant Point.

Following the board’s 5-3 vote Thursday, a next step by Downeast LNG remained uncertain.

“We’re disappointed with the decision, and we will have to explore our options,” said Ted O’Meara with Pierce Atwood Consulting.

Opponents of the LNG proposal have urged the board to keep the current application alive.

Ronald Kreisman, an attorney representing the group Save Passamaquoddy Bay, suggested Downeast LNG officials hope to invalidate an unfavorable public record, according to the Bangor Daily News.

“The big, unstated thing going on here is they want to withdraw the application as a springboard for creating a new record,” Kreisman said.

Two board members, Donald Guimond and Richard Gould, said they were uncomfortable denying any applicant the right to withdraw a permit request.

Some Canadian government officials have threatened to block LNG tankers from passing through Canadian waters en route to facilities proposed in neighboring Maine.

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Information from: Bangor Daily News, http://www.bangornews.com

AP-ES-10-26-07 0923EDT