Because AES Corp. refused the state of Maryland’s request to stay the federal consistency review of its proposed Sparrows Point LNG terminal, the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) has denied the developer’s request for a finding that the project is consistent with the state’s Coastal Zone Management Program (CZMP).

“MDE asked AES to stay the federal consistency review period to give MDE the time to receive and consider the information necessary to carry out a comprehensive review of the project and its consistency with Maryland’s networked CZMP. AES’s refusal to agree to a stay leaves MDE with no choice but to object to the AES certification,” the state regulator said in a recent letter to AES Sparrows Point LNG.

“AES has not provided sufficient information necessary for the state” to decide whether the proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal project is consistent with its coastal zone program, MDE noted.

Arlington, VA-based AES now has a month to ask the secretary of the Department of Commerce to override Maryland’s objection to its LNG terminal project. In order to grant an override request, the secretary must find that the project is consistent with the objectives or purposes of the federal Coastal Zone Management Act, or is necessary to national security.

This is just one more obstacle in the company’s path to construct the terminal on a peninsula that juts out into Chesapeake Bay in the city of Baltimore. AES also is battling in state and federal courts to overturn a Baltimore County ordinance that bans the construction of LNG facilities along its part of the Chesapeake Bay (see Daily GPI, July 3, July 11). AES contends that the county’s zoning ordinance violates the Energy Policy Act of 2005’s amendments to the Natural Gas Act, which gave the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission sole jurisdiction over the siting of LNG facilities.

If built, the Sparrows Point project would have about 1.5 Bcf/d of regasification capacity with a potential for expansion to 2.25 Bcf/d. Regasified LNG would be delivered to regional markets via Mid-Atlantic Express, an 87-mile, 30-inch diameter pipeline that would extend from the terminal to connections with interstate pipelines at Eagle, PA. The pipeline also would include connections with local distribution company Baltimore Gas & Electric.

The project, including three LNG storage tanks, would be located on 80 acres within the existing Sparrows Point Industrial Complex in Baltimore County. The site was previously owned by Bethlehem Steel and housed a steel manufacturing and shipbuilding facility.

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