For some reason, the folks behind the last remaining proposed LNG import facility on the East Coast, Downeast LNG, are still pursuing their license from FERC to build a liquefied natural gas terminal on the shores of Passamaquoddy Bay here in Maine. And even more perplexing, FERC is still willing to spend time and resources on a project that the energy market is clearly saying makes no sense, or cents for that matter. As our friends at Save Passamaquoddy Bay 3 Nation Alliance point out, Downeast LNG has “just become the sole remaining LNG import terminal on the entire continent.” In light of the already overbuilt capacity for importing LNG, the significant amount of domestic natural gas now flooding the market and bringing prices to an all-time low, and the read more…

Using natural gas for heating, cooling, and electricity generation instead of oil or coal has important environmental benefits. Burning natural gas produces less air pollution than other fossil fuels, both in terms of the pollutants that threaten public health and the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. While New England should reduce overall energy demand through increased efficiency and cut fossil fuel demand by ramping up renewable energy, CLF considers natural gas to be an important transitional fuel as we move toward a clean energy economy. Still, natural gas is not benign. Significant environmental hazards can accompany the methods used to extract natural gas, including groundwater pollution from the practice of hydraulic fracturing and critical habitat destruction from drilling and extraction. There are also negative environmental impacts associated with liquefied read more…

Last Wednesday, Calais LNG delivered its second major surprise in just two weeks.  After stunning all parties by asking the Board of Environmental Protection for a last minute hearing postponement, Calais LNG announced on July 21 that its financial backer, GS Power Holdings LLC, a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs, was in the process of “selling its ownership interests.”  Huh, go figure.  From our perspective, this just confirms that the smart folks at Goldman Sachs finally sat down after spending more than $24 million to take a hard look at the project and reached the same conclusion that we did long ago: the New England market is already saturated with natural gas and there is no need for a new industrial LNG terminal that will have significant adverse impacts on the read more…

After months of political and legal muscle flexing to bully the Board of Environmental Protection into setting an extremely aggressive hearing schedule, the proponents of a liquefied natural gas import and regasification industrial facility on the shores of Passamaquoddy Bay sought and obtained a last minute postponement.  Why? The official story is that the BEP didn’t want to make their decision without certain information that Calais LNG failed to submit in response to comments they received three months earlier from two state agencies concerning impacts on wetlands and fisheries. We think there’s something else going on.  Perhaps the project’s financial backers, a shapeless subsidiary of Goldman Sachs, got tired of wasting money.  Or perhaps Calais LNG recognized the significant weaknesses and impacts of the project as set forth in testimony read more…