Citing a Commerce Department decision last month that was favorable to New York, the state Wednesday renewed its request for FERC to withdraw or vacate its order approving Broadwater Energy LLC’s proposal to site a controversial floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Long Island Sound. The request comes only days after TransCanada Corp., one of the project’s sponsor, said the proposed LNG terminal was on the “back-burner” for now (see Daily GPI, May 4).

In April 2008 the New York State Department of State (NYSDOS) objected to the Broadwater terminal project on the grounds that it was inconsistent with the Long Island Sound Coastal Management Plan. The agency subsequently asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to withdraw or vacate its order approving the terminal, but FERC refused the request, citing Broadwater’s pending appeal of NYSDOS’ objection. Broadwater appealed the state’s objection to Commerce in June 2008.

Last month Commerce upheld New York’s objection to the Broadwater project, prompting the state to once again ask FERC to either withdraw or vacate its order. The Commerce Department ruled that the potential adverse coastal impacts of the LNG project would outweigh its national interest (see Daily GPI, April 14).

In March 2008 FERC, bowing in part to extreme pressure from neighboring Connecticut, imposed more than 80 environmental, security and safety conditions in its order approving the Broadwater project and associated pipeline (see Daily GPI, March 24, 2008).

Broadwater Energy filed its application with the Commission in February 2006, and immediately it drew widespread calls for federal regulators to reject the project (see Daily GPI, Feb. 1, 2006). FERC staff pointed out that the Broadwater terminal would not be the first commercial project to operate in Long Island Sound. The shoreline includes a number of industrial and commercial areas, some of which have been operating for decades; and an estimated 4,000 to 7,000 commercial vessels transit the Sound annually, staff reported.

If built, the $700 million Broadwater offshore terminal would have an average sendout capacity of 1 Bcf/d and peak sendout of 1.25 Bcf/d. Broadwater Energy, a partnership of Shell Oil and TransCanada, would operate the facility, while Shell would own the capacity and supply the LNG.

The LNG would be delivered by tankers, temporarily stored on the floating LNG facility, vaporized and then transported in a new 21.7-mile subsea pipeline that would have an offshore connection with the Iroquois Gas Transmission pipeline, which extends across Long Island Sound. Broadwater estimates that an average of 118 tankers annually (two to three per week) would be needed to meet the project’s planned sendout volume. The tankers would enter Long Island Sound from the Atlantic at the eastern end of the sound and travel down the middle to the terminal, away from Long Island and Connecticut harbors and not approaching the New York harbor.

Broadwater estimates that approximately half of the natural gas sendout from the offshore LNG terminal would be delivered to New York City, about 25-30% to Long Island and the remaining 20-25% to Connecticut. Currently, New York City, Long Island and Connecticut get about 85% of their natural gas via pipeline from the Gulf of Mexico and Canada.

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