The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has made its decision on requests to extend the public comment period on the environmental assessment it issued last month pertaining to the Dominion Cove Point Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export project. The answer is no. The record will be closed at 5 p.m. Monday, June 16 as originally planned.
In a letter signed by FERC’s Acting Chair Kimberly D. Bose, it was noted that the commission received a formal request from congressmen Steny Hoyer and Chris Van Hollen, and senators Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski.
A request was also submitted to FERC from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Regional Office also requested an extension. In response to the EPA’s request Dominion officials sent a letter to FERC stating public comment on the $3.8 billion expansion project began almost two years ago and the environmental assessment “did not raise any new material issues requiring an extension of time.”
On May 23, the American Petroleum Institute and Dominion requested FERC deny the requests for extension. On June 3, several days after FERC conducted a well-attended public meeting at Patuxent High School (PHS) in Lusby on the controversial project, delegates Tony O’Donnell and Mark Fisher requested the commission stick to its original plan to close public comment June 16.
That same day, the Calvert County Commissioners also sent a letter to FERC, asking the panel to adhere to the original deadline, noting that the commission conducted “an unprecedented public comment meeting. At this hearing, FERC staff stayed beyond the scheduled adjournment of 6 p.m. to accommodate each registered speaker. The meeting adjourned at approximately 7:30 p.m. In our opinion, no new issues were raised.”
Meanwhile, Dominion Energy’s Director of Communications Jim Norvelle reported the company has accepted the Maryland Public Service Commission’s (PSC) Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for the Cove Point LNG project and its conditions. The PSC issued the certificate May 30, the day before the hearing at PHS.
If the Cove Point LNG export project receives final approval from FERC later this summer, it would be subsequently followed by a three-year construction project within the confines of the 40-year-old gas plant. The liquefaction facility would give Dominion the capability of exporting natural gas to countries in India and Japan.
In addition to environmental concerns—air pollution, heavy draws of water from local aquifers, the potential for invasive species to invade the Chesapeake Bay via the tanker ships docking at the plant’s offshore terminal—opponents have raised concerns about public safety, homeland security and noise. The concerns haven’t been isolated in Calvert County, as the many opponents have also claimed the exportation of natural gas will likely lead to the expansion of a hydraulic drilling procedure known as fracking. 
