The Maine Board of Environmental Protection has agreed to a request by Calais LNG to postpone next week’s hearing on its proposed $1 billion liquefied natural gas delivery terminal in Washington County.

No new date was set, and the board said it would meet with parties to the case in the near future to reschedule the long-anticipated session.

The decision was made reluctantly, according to Susan Lessard, the board’s chair, and comes at considerable cost in time and resources to the board and parties to the case.

The board has been planning five days of hearings in Calais, and public hearings in Calais and Eastport, beginning July 19. More than 100 witnesses were scheduled to testify.

In a surprise move on Tuesday, Calais LNG asked the board to postpone the hearing. It said it was lacking specific information it needed in the case, including soils data along the pipeline route, wetlands analysis, historical preservation requests and fisheries data.

Both Lessard and opponents to the projects expressed surprise that Calais LNG had come to this conclusion only three business days before the hearing.

“Since information needed for the board to make a fully informed decision on the application is apparently lacking, I have reluctantly concluded that the hearing should be postponed,” Lessard wrote today in a letter to a company lawyer.

Calais LNG wants to build a gas delivery terminal on 330 acres along the St. Croix River, seven miles south of downtown Calais. The project would feature a 1,000-foot pier, two or three storage tanks and 20 miles of underground pipe connecting to the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline. The terminal would have the capacity to move 1 billion cubic feet of gas daily, and be served on average by one or two tankers a week.

It is one of two LNG projects seeking permits in the area. The other is Downeast LNG, in Robbinston.
 


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