New law would
block LNG tankers from Bay
Jul 13, 2006 - Providence Journal Bulletin
Author(s): Alex Kuffner, Journal Staff Writer
Governor Carcieri signed the anti-LNG bill into law Monday. A
Weaver's Cove Energy spokesman says that federal law supersedes state
law and that the tankers would be allowed to travel local waters to
their proposed facility in Fall River.
* * *
Governor Carcieri has signed into law legislation that would block
tankers carrying liquefied natural gas from using Rhode Island waters to
reach a proposed terminal in Fall River's North End.
The governor on Monday signed the bill, which was proposed by state
Rep. Raymond E. Gallison Jr., D-Bristol, Portsmouth, at the beginning of
the year and was passed by the General Assembly before it adjourned late
last month.
"This is what I wanted," Gallison said yesterday. "I'm ecstatic the
governor signed the legislation. This law will protect the people who
live along Narragansett Bay."
The intent of the law is to effectively prohibit massive LNG tankers
from passing through state waters by enforcing strict security zones
with which the ships would not be able to comply.
If the ships can't use local waters, they won't be able to reach the
$250-million facility that Weaver's Cove Energy and Hess LNG want to
build on 73 acres along the Taunton River.
The plan has been approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee
but still needs a host of permits from local and state agencies in Rhode
Island and Massachusetts.
Gallison, chairman of the Special House Commission to Study the
Transport of Liquefied Natural Gas, said the law was drawn up by the
state attorney general's office and lawyers for the legislature, and is
based on language in the federal Port and Waterways Safety Act.
Gallison and Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch have been among the
most vocal critics in Rhode Island of the controversial plan. Carcieri
has also expressed opposition to the facility.
They say that tankers traveling to the proposed terminal would be
safety hazards. Two studies have concluded that if an LNG tanker is
attacked by terrorists, a fire could be ignited that could burn people a
mile away.
The law specifies a list of "state assets" that cannot at any time be
within the Coast Guard's security zone around a tanker. The zone would
stretch two miles ahead of a tanker, one mile behind and 1,000 yards on
either side.
The bill prohibits the following from being in the zone: people,
piers, wharves or docks, waterfront facilities, flammable materials,
hunting grounds or areas from which an incendiary device could be
launched, and places where welding or torch cutting is being done.
Tankers would be unable to comply because at points along their route
north through Narragansett and Mount Hope bays they would pass within
several hundred of feet of densely populated coastal areas in Rhode
Island. Gallison has referred to specific points in Portsmouth and where
Roger Williams University is in Bristol as being within the zone.
What effect the new law will have on the proposed terminal in Fall
River is unclear.
A spokesman for Weaver's Cove Energy said that the governor's
decision to pass the bill into law would not affect his company's plans.
James A. Grasso said Weaver's Cove Energy would follow only federal laws
that apply to tanker traffic.
"The governor did what he thought he had to do," Grasso said. "We, as
well as some of the agencies that we have to get approvals from, like
the U.S. Coast Guard, are relying on a longstanding precedent that
federal law preempts state law."
He based his statement on concerns raised by the Coast Guard before
the legislature voted in favor of Gallison's bill.
In letters in May to the Senate president and House speaker, Rear
Adm. David P. Pekoske, commander of the First Coast Guard District, said
that any state law in this instance would be preempted by federal law.
The letters also point to Massachusetts, where a bill similar to
Gallison's was passed by the state legislature in 2004 but is now being
challenged in court by federal authorities on constitutional grounds.
"It is my strong desire to avoid the same situation in Rhode Island,"
Pekoske wrote.
Nevertheless, Gallison said, he is confident that the state law will
be put into effect and survive any possible legal challenges.
"Narragansett Bay is the property of our state," he said. "We have
every right to protect our Bay."
akuffner@projo.com / (401)
277-7457
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