“We believe this report does not consider
every proposal but functions to supplement special-interest legislation
previously filed that would allow AES Corp. to build an LNG facility on
Outer Brewster Island,” wrote Sens. Michael Morrissey, D-Quincy, Robert
Hedlund, R-Weymouth, Pamela Resor, D-Acton, Jack Hart, D-Boston, and
Jarrett Barrios, D-Cambridge. in a letter filed Friday.
On Thursday, the same group requested a special meeting of the
commission to discuss the report before its scheduled release on Friday,
citing many of the same concerns.
The request was denied by Rep. Brian Dempsey, D-Haverhill, the
House co-chair of the Special Commission Relative to Liquefied Natural
Gas Facility Siting and Use.
“While I appreciate and respect your concerns, the time for
comments has passed,” Dempsey said.
The facility proposed for Outer Brewster Island would allow tankers
to offload LNG on a rock outcropping now owned by the state but part of
a National Park Service island system. LNG currently is shipped through
the harbor to a terminal in Everett. That terminal’s operator has no
plans to halt shipments should the Outer Brewster terminal be built.
The legislation, which would allow the state to sell the land on
Outer Brewster Island and put it up for bid for an LNG terminal, is
being proposed by a subsidiary of Virginia-based AES Corp.
In March, the Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures and State
Assets voted to send the bill to a “study,” normally a legislative
graveyard. But last month, the Senate moved the bill out of the
committee and sent it to the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural
Resources and Agriculture.
The House took similar action in May, sending it to the Joint
Committee on Telecommunication, Utilities and Energy, where Dempsey is
co-chairman. The Senate chairs of both committees, Morrissey and Resor,
have publicly opposed the bill.
Gov.
Mitt Romney, a Republican, said earlier this week he opposes
the Fall River site, but the Outer Brewster proposal “has some features
that are attractive.”
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