Once again, U.S. Sens. Benjamin L. Cardin and Barbara A. Mikulski have proposed legislation to repeal a provision of the five-year-old Energy Policy Act so that states could veto the location of a liquefied natural gas terminal. That an LNG terminal and pipeline might be forced on Sparrows Point despite the strong opposition of state and local elected leaders underscores the failure of the existing law.
This year, Maryland's senators are joined by senators from Connecticut, Washington and Oregon, states where -- no surprise here -- similar terminals have met with stiff resistance. Such decision-making authority ought to rest in the hands of states and not with federal regulators. Where is the "states' rights" crowd when the energy sector is throwing its weight around?
AES Corp., the Virginia-based company that wants to build the Sparrows Point LNG terminal and its 87-mile pipeline, and its supporters have argued that LNG is too important for the nation's energy future to allow NIMBY concerns to squash their efforts.
But importing natural gas from producing countries such as Yemen, Indonesia and Russia to the U.S. looks like a questionable move for any number of strategic reasons, particularly with new estimates that suggest North American natural gas reserves are greater than previously thought. The U.S. Department of Energy forecasts 2011 will see a dip in LNG imports even as the economy recovers from recession.
The Sparrows Point project is at least temporarily on the shelf -- thanks to Maryland's refusal to grant a water quality permit, a decision backed by the federal courts including the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But that obstacle might eventually be removed. The Senate bill would give states direct control -- as local governments have long had over other energy projects.
The NIMBY complaint doesn't wash. Maryland has long supported expansion of another LNG facility, Dominion Cove Point in Calvert County, as have local authorities. It's one of the country's largest such facilities. But it hasn't raised the same troubling issues of toxic dredge spoil, security against attack and impact on maritime traffic that the Sparrows Point project has.
