In its final report to Maryland legislators, a group studying a proposed liquefied natural gas facility on Sparrows Point is recommending that state officials urge federal regulators to deny approval for the project based on environmental and safety concerns.
The panel also recommends that the state not issue any permits that would allow the project to move forward, according to the report, which was finalized yesterday.
But it remains unclear whether state officials have the authority to stop the widely criticized project.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission decides where LNG facilities can be located.
"I don't know that the legislators can do anything directly to stop this project," said Joel Baker, co-chairman of the task force appointed by Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and members of the state Senate and House of Delegates to study the LNG proposal.
But, Baker said, "I think that Maryland can regulate water quality and its coastal zone management plan and to that extent can influence the process."
Whether a federal agency could override a denial by the state of a permit for the project remains "untested legal territory," Baker said after the final Task Force meeting yesterday.
The LNG project proposed by AES Corp., a Virginia-based power supply company, calls for dredging in the Patapsco River to accommodate the overseas tankers that would unload the liquefied natural gas at the terminal, where the liquid would be returned to gas and pumped through a 87-mile pipeline from Sparrows Point to southern Pennsylvania for distribution. The company is proposing to recycle the dredge spoils.
Maryland's Department of the Environment and Board of Public Works, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, approve dredging work.
LNG projects are often opposed by local communities and state officials. But, a spokeswoman for FERC, Tamara Young-Allen, said she didn't know of any state stopping a LNG project approved by the commission.
In Maryland's LNG task force report, the panel recommends that state officials advise FERC that Baltimore County emergency officials have said they have no way of notifying residents who live near the proposed facility about possible emergencies and they aren't equipped to respond to a major accident and evacuate the residents in the area.
