The House Natural Resources Committee passed legislation (HR 415) Wednesday that includes the Taunton River in southeast Massachusetts in the National Park Service’s Wild and Scenic Rivers system, throwing another roadblock in the path of the Weaver’s Cove Energy liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.

The panel voted out the stand-alone measure by voice vote. “I think it would be another factor that would make that [Weaver’s Cove] project more difficult,” but the effort to have the Taunton River designated in the Wild and Scenic Rivers system pre-dates the embattled LNG project, said Peter Kovar, chief of staff for Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), one of the sponsors of the bill.

Weaver’s Cove originally proposed, and FERC approved in 2005, the construction of an LNG terminal in Fall River, MA. But due to continuing concerns expressed by the community and the U.S. Coast Guard, as well as the denial of a dredging permit by Massachusetts, Weaver’s Cove in April asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to amend its certificate to allow it to construct an offshore LNG unloading berth in Mount Hope Bay and an underwater pipeline to transport the LNG to the proposed terminal site at Fall River (see Daily GPI, April 2).

The latest proposal is now undergoing the Commission’s pre-filing process, and Weaver’s Cove has requested a deadline extension to place the proposed facilities in service by Nov. 1, 2015.

“The new ill-advised plan would also require extensive damaging dredging of the Taunton River,” wrote Frank, an ardent opponent of the Weaver’s Cove project, in a letter earlier this month to FERC Chairman Joseph Kelliher.

“The Department of Interior has already determined that dredging associated with the proposed LNG facility is inconsistent with the Wild and Scenic designation and that the proposed dredging will not be permitted. A number of leading maritime authorities, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, have consistently raised concerns about the scope and extent of dredging associated with this project and placing a pipeline on the river bed further exacerbates the harmful impacts of this project,” Frank said.

The bill, which was cosponsored by the entire Massachusetts and Rhode Island delegations in the House, must pass both the House and Senate before being sent to President Bush. Companion legislation introduced by Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and John Kerry (D-MA) was approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee earlier this month. The Senate sponsors are working to bring up their legislation before the full Senate within the next several weeks.

In October 2007 the Coast Guard concluded that the Taunton River was “[was] unsuitable from a navigation safety perspective for the type, size and frequency of LNG marine traffic associated with [the Weaver’s Cove] proposal” (see Daily GPI, Oct. 25, 2007). In March the project suffered another blow when the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection denied a request by Weaver’s Cove Energy to dredge the Taunton River to a depth to accommodate LNG tankers (see Daily GPI, March 18). These setbacks prompted Weaver’s Cove to go back to the drawing board and revise its project.

The Weaver’s Cove project has been the target of fierce opposition by local, state and federal officials, who are adamant against building LNG infrastructure in their backyard, although they admit that more natural gas supply is needed for the region (see Daily GPI, Sept. 11, 2006). If built, the proposed terminal would provide 800 MMcf/d of peak sendout capacity, 400 MMcf/d of baseload supply and 200,000 metric tons of LNG storage.

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