Prince George’s County Circuit Court Judge James Salmon granted a declaratory judgment sought by Dominion after the Sierra Club said last April that it would oppose the energy company’s plan to expand operations and export liquefied natural gas from its Cove Point terminal along the southern Chesapeake Bay.
The Sierra Club argued that a 2005 legal agreement involving permitted activities at the Cove Point site prohibited Dominion’s plan to export LNG.
But Salmon agreed with Dominion that the 2005 agreement unambiguously allows Dominion to construct, operate and maintain additional LNG facilities at Cove Point, and to export liquefied natural gas by pipeline from the Cove Point terminal to tankers docked at an offshore pier.
“There is no provision in the 2005 agreement explicitly prohibiting use of the facility for exporting LNG,” Salmon wrote in a 10-page ruling issued Friday after hearing arguments in October.
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| Old Dominion Gas Docks seen from Flag Harbor |
Apparently, Sierra Club never anticipated that the gas docks would be in a position to be used as a natural gas exporting facility, or I'm sure they would have tried to foreclose that option as well.
In opposing the project, the Sierra Club argued that LNG exports could result in environmental damage to the Chesapeake Bay and nearby Calvert Cliffs State Park while driving up the cost of domestic natural gas.
There should be no more damage to the Chesapeake Bay, if any at all, with the plant operating as an export facility instead of an importing facility. Ships still have to come and go, gas still has to stored on site and pumped between the shore, the dock and the ships. And in other circumstances, I'm sure Sierra Club would gladly proclaim that high energy costs were good for us, because they discourage use. So why the attempt to stop Cove Point from becoming an export facility?
Underlying the Cove Point dispute is the controversy over hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which involves blasting mixtures of water, sand and chemicals deep underground to stimulate the release of natural gas from shale deposits. Environmental groups and other critics contend that the chemicals can pollute drinking water supplies.
Dominion has said the Cove Point terminal is well-positioned to export gas extracted from the Marcellus Shale formation lying beneath Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and other states.
Richmond-based Dominion and other energy companies see a lucrative overseas market for U.S. natural gas, which is considerably cheaper than natural gas in Europe and Asia. According to a recently released study commissioned by the DOE as it decides whether to approve 15 liquefied natural gas export applications, the U.S. would see net economic benefits from LNG exports even if they lead to higher domestic prices for natural gas.
Good new for Maryland and good news for Southern Maryland and the United States.
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