Opinion: It's time to put aside NIMBY and let LNG terminal in
New England wants energy always available at the push of a button, but it doesn’t want the hassles of obtaining it. Thus, projects that would bring much-needed energy to the region often fight for survival in a storm of NIMBY-fueled political opposition. New England, despite its "green rhetoric,’’ is the most backward and hypocritical part of America when it comes to dealing with energy challenges.
Such is the case with the proposed Weavers Cove LNG terminal, in Fall River, which has received the approval of the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission but still faces a battery of permitting challenges.
Recently, U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Roy Nash raised some serious safety concerns about the project. Local and federal politicians were quick to jump on a letter to that effect by Captain Nash as proof that they were right all along about the safety of transporting LNG.
Yet it is interference by these same headline-hunting (and science- and engineering-ignorant) politicians that is causing the most serious safety concerns!
In a bald attempt to gum up the works, members of Congress deliberately made it more dangerous for ships to navigate in that area. They effectively barred the removal of the old Brightman Street drawbridge upon the completion of a new Brightman Street bridge. The new bridge has a 200-foot-wide navigation opening, plenty big for LNG tankers.
Politicians thought that settled that, but Weavers Cove officials came up with a new plan to deliver LNG by making additional runs using smaller tankers. To be sure, additional trips pose greater safety risks and hassles to the public than fewer ones, and the Coast Guard raised some concerns about whether those smaller tankers can safely negotiate the area. Thus, the obstructionists may well win, and those who need to use energy in New England may lose.
Still, Weavers Cove officials seem upbeat about their chances. They say they can address the Coast Guards concerns. And, according to MarketWatch, Gordon Shearer, the head of Hess LNG, hopes that the project will receive necessary permits within 9 to 12 months, so that construction may proceed.
One thing is certain: New England desperately needs natural gas and other energy sources and has to get it somehow.
How will it get the gas? If it cannot bring in LNG tankers – as far more populated areas do safely every day around the world – then New England will suffer with significantly higher energy costs, and the flight of more businesses and jobs. But it’s a safe bet that the politicians, while happily trawling for votes by exploiting exaggerated NIMBY fears, will never take blame for the harm caused by their obstructionism and demagoguery.
From The Providence Journal
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