Plant proponents still face a key ruling before construction can begin: The five-member Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is expected to vote next month on whether to approve the LNG project, spearheaded by Virginia-based AES Corp., at the former Bethlehem Steel shipyard. Earlier this year, FERC staff members recommended conditional approval of the project.
County Attorney John E. Beverungen wrote to the developer in June that officials have "no intention of placing Baltimore County's emergency responders in harm's way to further AES's private operation and profit motives." He suggested that the company supply its own emergency and security services, similar to the in-house fire department once operated at the site by Bethlehem Steel.
And yet county firefighters expect to deal with any risk the gas plant and pipeline might pose, according to Mike Day, president of the Baltimore County Professional Fire Fighters Association, which represents about 1,000 firefighters and paramedics.
"I think it's time that Baltimore County admit that it's going to occur," Day said yesterday about the plant's construction. "If there's a 1 percent chance that it'll occur, we need to be 100 percent prepared."
Day said people in Dundalk, Edgemere and Sparrows Point are "starving for employment," which the plant would help provide. "Somebody needs to point out the spinoff benefits of this," he said. "To be realistic, Baltimore County has attempted to put up every possible wall, and I think it was to appease a vocal minority."
Day and Easter plan to join representatives of several other groups - including United Food and Commercial Workers Local 27, United Steelworkers Local 9477, AFL-CIO's Baltimore Central Labor Council and the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association - today to announce the launch of the Sparrows Point Workforce Alliance.
A mission statement for the group says it plans to bring together "community, religious, business, labor and government leaders to leverage the opportunity presented by the LNG terminal and create real economic development projects that improve the quality of life of all of our neighbors."
In June, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez concluded that the need for natural gas outweighed any environmental damage that could be caused by the LNG terminal and the dredging of the Patapsco River to accommodate tankers importing the fuel.
