Sears Island, Maine: Liquefied natural gas terminal?
The coast of Maine has been no stranger to energy development proposals over the years. With the exception of the now-defunct Maine Yankee nuclear power plant, fierce opposition has prevented these mostly unwise projects from being built. The latest idea running around is to build ports that would allow liquefied natural gas (LNG) to be off-loaded from ships into land-based pipeline systems. The cooled gas would come to Maine chiefly from the West African nations of Liberia and Nigeria.
Now, after rejection last Tuesday of such an LNG terminal in the small coastal town of Harpswell, Maine, developers are eying a 940-acre gem called Sears Island for this environmental disaster.
Beautiful, undeveloped Sears Island in Searsport, Maine on Penobscot Bay has a very long history of energy and port proposals that have only been set aside by vigorous citizen opposition. Beginning in 1977, Central Maine Power wanted the site for a nuclear power plant, then a coal-fired power plant.
Later, the proposal transformed into a short-sited, ill-considered plan for a cargo port. When developers couldn’t figure out what “cargo” actually would be shipped there, they came up with a crazy plan to send wood chips around the world. Friends of Sears Island, a citizen group organized to protect the island, has lots of maps, documents, and history posted.
An issue that Deep Blade Journal will continue to investigate is why build these LNG ports? Why has it become so important to import gas? Clues come from Matthew Simmons. (See Article 254, “Behind the Blackout”, ASPO Newsletter #34). Domestic and Canadian gas supply is showing severe signs of depletion. This is happening directly after a decade-long program of expansion of electrical generating capacity through just one fuel–gas.
Less than one mile from the offices of Deep Blade Journal lies a pretty new gas-fired electric generating plant. Most of the energy that comes out of it heads south toward Massachusetts. The gas for this “Maine Independence Station” run by Duke Energy and connected to Bangor Hydro travels through a recently-built pipeline from Canada. What does the future hold for this gas supply? Will Duke be able to charge enough for its electricity in order to pay for its fuel into this future?