Sierra Club to fight Maryland Dominion natural gas export hub using 1972 deal
UPDATE 4-Sierra Club to fight Dominion hub using 1972 deal
Thu Apr 26, 2012 3:16pm EDT
By Ayesha Rascoe
(Reuters) - The Sierra Club will try to use a 40-year-old legal settlement to scuttle plans by Dominion Resources Inc to convert a liquefied natural gas terminal in Maryland into a major export hub.
The environmental group, which opposes the export terminal as part of its wider fight against natural gas drilling from shale deposits, can weigh in on certain changes at the site of the proposed terminal under a 1972 legal agreement.
The Sierra Club says that under that settlement, it has a say over whether Dominion can convert an import terminal at Cove Point, near a state park, into an export plant. Dominion's CEO disagreed with that view during a conference call with analysts on Thursday.
The Sierra Club and the Maryland Conservation Council made the deal with the then owner of the planned Cove Point terminal, just south of Calvert Cliffs State Park. Dominion, the current owner, wants to convert the facility from an import terminal to an export plant that would ship up to 1 billion cubic feet of cheap U.S. natural gas a day to foreign markets where it would fetch a higher price.
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The Sierra Club and Maryland Conservation Council challenged construction of the Cove Point LNG import terminal more than four decades ago. Their 1972 settlement with Columbia Gas System Inc. bound Columbia and any future owners of the terminal to certain conditions for use of the land. It also required approval of the environmental groups for expansions.
"The deal says what it says, and that's the end of the story," Sierra Club lawyer Craig Segall said. "If they want to try to persuade someone to let them out of it, that's their prerogative, but I don't think they will be successful."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/26/dominion-lng-sierra-idUSL2E8FQ5ZB20120426
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