Bay Flashback: How Searsport citizens stopped an LNG tank proposal in 2004

In 2004 the people of Searsport, with the help of residents of some surrounding communities, were able to wring a "no LNG terminals in Searsport ever" concession from Maine Governor John Baldacci and his Department of Transportation.  The governor agreed " to defer to a host municipality before taking state actions in support of any LNG proposal".  (6/1/4 letter below)

Read a close-in description of that entire struggle, as compiled by Governor Baldacci's staff for a June 2004 Freedom of Access Law request to Governor Baldacci's office,   
NOTE: USE YOUR BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO THIS PAGE These links are  "wayback machine" archived versions of these files.

The below Searsport/LNG related files from October 2013 to June 2004 vividly illustrates the intense maneuvering of all parties from citizens  and ENGOs to the transportation industry and its adherents .  List of Governor's staff & agency heads mentioned. Other FOA'd documents  (All documents are transcriptions of original documents)

2003 
  October 27 2003 - March 3, 2004 by date

Additional 2003-2004 Documents by topic

Governor Baldacci & LNG: Security & Public Safety
LNG Security Review of Boston Harbor & Everett LNG facility (& Harpswell) Undated) Dept of Public Safety's memo to Adams & Stearns re DPS' LNG 'Perspective' report 10/29/03
Report by DPS: "LNG: A Perspective on Security & Safety" unsigned, undated
Maine Emergency Management Agency to Baldacci advisor -overview of LNG security issues undated

Governor Baldacci and "political" side of LNG issues in Maine.
David Bright, friend of Baldacci's, offers Sears Island & LNG political advice 5/20/04 2/20/04

Governor Baldacci and towns and state legislators on LNG
Governor's form letter on LNG ("sent to 92 constituents") 5/25/04
Stockton Springs Selects write to Waldo County with LNG concerns 3/12/04
3 Legislators write Baldacci with LNG concerns. 3/29/04
Baldacci writes to Searsport 4/4/04
Waldo County Commissioners write JEB with concerns 4/13/04
Searsport writes to Baldacci; asks for official "No LNG without town support" letter in writing. 4/15/04
Searsport invites Governor to Searsport LNG gathering. 4/22/04
Baldacci writes to Waldo County Commissioners & area legislators about LNG 6/1/04

Governor Baldacci & Sierra Club communications on LNG 
Sierra Club writes to Baldacci calls for LNG planning 2/23/04
Baldacci's policy advisor responds to Sierra Club 3/304
MDOT Commissioner Cole writes to Sierra Club 4/6/04
Sierra Club writes again to Baldacci, "puzzled" by non response) 4/28/04 
Baldacci policy analyst Stearns sets meeting with Sierra Club, Islesboro Island Trust 5/19/04

Governor Baldacci and Federal Govt "pre-emption" on LNG
MDEP Commissioner gets report on state's existing LNG laws & regulations 11/26/03
Nagusky to DEP and Gov's chief counsel on FERC powers 4/22/04
Nagusky sends Littel & Stearns copies of FERC Preemption Order #CP04-58 4/22/04

Describes federal document on who controls LNG decisions 4/28/04
Citizens Energy writes to Baldacci about FERC & Maine 5/14/04
CLF writes to FERC & Governor about LNG in New England 5/5/04
CLF writes to New England Governors, Congress about LNG 5/5/04


Governor Baldacci and Quoddy LNG plan.
Notes from LNG meeting at Pleasant Point undated
Quoddy Bay LLC's "Fact Sheet" distributed at a public meeting with Passamaquaddy tribe.
Umphrey to Cashman on Portland investors for Washington County LNG 5/19/04
Baldacci's draft Quoddy LLC statement 6/8/04

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* FOA documents from CommIssioner of Economic Development Jack Cashman, March 2004 Click Here
* FOA documents from Governor Baldacci, Oct 3 '03 to March 3 2004 Click Here

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Above documents may also be found  here:
* FOA documents requested from Governor Baldacci June 25, 2004 to September 29, 2004. Click here
* FOA documents from Governor Baldacci April - June 2004. Click Here
* FOA documents from Jack Cashman Commissioner, DECD, January 1st to March 2004 Click Here

.

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END



Town of Searsport, Maine
P. O. Box 499
Searsport, Maine 04974
548-6372 • 548-2300

April 15, 2004

The Honorable John Elias Baldacci
Governor of Maine
1 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0001

Dear Governor Baldacci,
This is the formal request by the Town of Searsport Board of Selectmen and residents that we have the State's Proclamation that nothing will happen in regards to industry within the Town of Searsport without the people of Searsport being allowed a voice in this process. The Town realizes there is State owned property within its boundaries and we hope the State realizes that this property has a tremendous impact on the people of Searsport.

The factors important to the Selectmen and the residents would include but not necessarily be limited to the following:
1. The company interested and its main function
2. The size of the facility
3. The number of employees and skill levels involved with employment
4. Any agency approval processes
5. Any description the State has for safety that might be needed for residents
6. Any description(s) of impact studies and analyses.
7. Any "letters of intent" or "option" would not be given prior to the Town having input as to the industry
8. Specifics on how residents and Town Officials alike would convey their concerns and questions to the Governors office or appropriate agency offices.
9. Lastly, the Town would like to know of, or be involved with the development of, any Alternative Economic Plans the State may have for State owned property within the boundaries of Searsport

This is a list of some concerns our residents might have and some have been addressed previously. The Town has been told that if the Selectmen request a formal proclamation from Governor Baldacci he will write one for us. We appreciate this offer and are now taking you up on it. The Town of Searsport is holding a Special Town Meeting on May 15, 2004 at 9:00 A.M. and would like to have this letter by that date.

The Town of Searsport and its residents wishes to express its respective gratitude for the time and consideration of this letter and requests within.

Sincerely,
Searsport Board of Selectmen
Joseph Perry, Chair
Carol Hersom, Vice Chair
Bruce Mills
John S. Herrithew
cc.
Board of Selectmen
Governor John Baldacci
Alan Stearns Commissioner
David Cole
Brian Nutter, Port Authority
Greg Nadeau Fred Michaud,
State Planning Office
Senator Carol Weston
Maine's Fastest Growing Industrial Deep Water Port

-end-

==================
STATE OF MAINE
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
1 STATE HOUSE STATION
AUGUSTA, MAINE 04333-OOO1

May 4, 2004

Board of Selectmen
Town of Searsport
P.O. Box 499
Searsport, ME 04974

Dear Members of the Board of Selectmen of Searsport:

I write in response to your letter dated April 15, 2004, requesting a local voice in the process of industrial development in Searsport.

With respect to any proposal to develop an LNG facility in any town in Maine, I have previously stated that I will defer to local governments as key decision-makers before taking action to support any particular proposal.

With respect to any proposal to develop an LNG facility on land owned by MaineDOT in the Town of Searsport, MaineDOT will not enter into any formal agreement with an LNG developer without the support of the Town of Searsport.
 A necessary first step is a vote of the Selectmen or a vote of the Town providing direction on how the Town would like to proceed.
The letter of the Selectmen dated April 15, 2004, inquires more broadly regarding industrial and economic development in the Town of Searsport. My letter today deals narrowly with LNG development. I know that MaineDOT has actively communicated its interest in working with Searsport in the town's comprehensive planning and implementation processes. Through that process, the community and MaineDOT can work toward defining a vision for the future of Searsport and Sears Island.
Sincerely,
John E. Baldacci
Governor
cc: Senator Carol Weston
Representative Don Berry
Commissioner David Cole
-------------------------------------------

Maine's Sea Wind Liberation bill: final action Monday

It has been positively Prufrockian in Maine's capital city if you care about the Wild Wind.

LD 1810 is a  bill offering the Dawn State the opportunity to lead America either into a confused beach head of fractured local economics and social unrest, or else divert the ocean wind farm wannabes further offshore.  That depends on whether on Monday April 5th the Maine Legislature finally  denies Maine's territorial tidal waters to intrusive, over-subsidized wind turbo farms like those set up on peaks and ridges of the Maine Woods.


Many more are planned  by  an alliance of utility investment groups, & high end compromise-prone state & New England eco-yuppy outfits, milking trickle-down gold from the Wind Giants. 


Then on March 24, 2010 this  ENGO/corporate hydra had its many heads handed to itselves,  for trying to wade out onto Maine's territorial sea mounts and ledges with similar "dumb growth" designs as they'd foisted on up lands.


The plan to infest Maine state  waters with  bladed towers has been left:

 "spread out against the sky / like a patient etherized upon a table.'   

 Yet similarly, final action on historic Wind Liberation legislation  too, continues to crawl glacially  toward the finish line. This time the final vote has been delayed to Monday - the very last day of the 2010 legislative session. And what amazing changes  the bill has gone through in the month since it first appeared! 

 An Act To Implement the Recommendations of the Governor's Ocean Energy Task Force" came out of that task force ready to force open every square mile of Maine state waters to industrial scale ocean windfarming.  But from the would-be invasion's beginning on March 11th,  Maine's two give-no-ground lobstermens associations held firm, letting wave after wave of windvaders, blades glittering above their briefcased ranks like sarissas, break futilely against their Ancient  Rights.   

But even granite becomes sand under repeated waves. At a major engagement  on March 18th,  Maine's lobstermen's 1st Legion, the MLA, was, to their everlasting ignominy, on the verge of giving up ground,  when a wild charge roaring in on shrimper, scalloper and groundfish boats savaged the invaders'  initiative, driving the windbaggers back mile after mile with their furious onset!  

Completely out of Maine state waters! Then, on March 23rd, as the Windies tried to reform, across the Line in federal waters, they were shocked to find Maine's oceanic cavalry  pouring from Bar Harbor  and other coastal towns in  coordinated small group forays through the three mile gate after them. This would be no Gettysburg, with the southern invaders again allowed to escape after their crushing defeat....

But escape they did, after being chased ten miles from shore, and vanishing, tails tucked,  into venture capital warrens - where no sensible fishermen goes.

Magnanimous in victory, Maine's fishing industry's terms were merciful: a ten mile no-windfarms buffer stretching out from Maine's shore, beyond which the Windies could practise their extraction industry - as long as (1)  the University of Maine held a controlling interest in those operations and not Wall Street, and (2) Maine electricity users had optional first dibs on the juice coming ashore in Maine from those offshore operations. 

Permission, too, was granted to test prototype offshore floating windsnatcher technology at  three tiny border sites off Midcoast Maine, to the relief of Bath Iron Works and Prock Marine, which would build the experimental wind-gathering machines, and even the mighty offshore behemoths that would be taken  by the University of Maine deep into the Gulf over the horizon.

Treaty terms made, it is up to the maine legislature and the Governor to ratify them. Bureaucratic dawdling has delayed the final signing of the agreement  by Govenor Baldacci, but  Monday is the final day of the legislative session, and already, witnesses have "heard the mermaids singing, each to each" and the governor grumbles "I do not think that they will sing to me."

* Quotes from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." by T.S. Eliot

Maine legislature vote on "best torture practices" bill LD1611 resched'd to Monday April 5.

Maine's House of Representatives will vote Monday April 5,  on whether to either pass "best torture practices" bill or continue to allow unbridled use of isolation and bondage punishment techniques by the state's prison personnel. The alternatives come as the divided form of LD 1611 comes up for vote today by the Maine House of Representatives. 

NOTE: THE BILL HAD  PREVIOUSLY BEEN SCHEDULED TO BE HEARD FRIDAY APRIL 2ND.

Bill supporters say regulated torture is far better than the unregulated version currently in vogue at Maine State Prison. For that reason, they are calling on House members to vote to approve Alternative Two of the bill, the Nutting/Schatz Alternative.  Prison officials, on the other hand, are urging that the "Ought Not to Pass" alternative be approved.

Under the version proposed by Senator Nutting and Representative Schatz, prisoners could not be held in solitary for more than 45 days without an open review, and those inmates known to suffer from a short list of mental illnesses that would be aggravated by prolonged isolation would be subject to other forms of discipline.

"The Department of Corrections' present policy is completely arbitrary",  said Ron Huber, host of a weekly corrections-focused talk show on WRFR Community Radio in Rockland.  

"My inmate correspondent in Maine state prison was ordered to six months in solitary for repairing other inmates' broken radios," Huber said.  "No history of violence or other violations of prison policies. Yet inmates guilty of far more serious infractions received less than a week in "the Hole" as Maine Supermax is known by guards and prisoners alike."  

"Regrettably, Commissioner Magnusson and his associate commissioner for public relations Denise Lord claim this this arbitrary system is preferable." Huber said. "It lets them literally  wield the power of life and death in Maine State Prison " he said, pointing out all the suicides in Maine state prison during the Baldacci Administration have occurred in the Maine Supermax under the present arbitrary policy.

On Thursday morning, Maine's House of Representatives will vote on LD 1611, choosing between 

(1) continuing the Department of Corrections current system of meting out arbitrary terms in solitary confinement/segregation at the whims of prison officials by noting Ought Not to Pass, or 

(2) rationalizing the process by requiring the Warden and Corrections Commission to follow limits consistent with present day understanding of the impacts of the use of this punishment.

By whatever name: the Hole, segregation, solitary confinement, the practice is widely condemned around the civilized world as a form of torture, Huber noted.

"If Maine is determined to continue to torture its incarcerated citizens," he said, "then regulated torture is much much better than the unregulated nightmare sanctioned by Governor Baldacci that is presently taking place behind the walls of Maine's Supermax ." 

Reform supporters say that is why passing the Nutting/Schatz Alternative is important. 

"It will let Maine lead the nation out of the supermisery that the rise of Supermaxes has had on America's corrections", radio producer Huber said. 

"The alternatives, doing nothing, or at best, urging the state prison to investigate itself, would be laughable if the situation weren't so serious."

Here comes that Sears Island umbrella again!

The word on the bay is that MDOT has just shipped out to the federal agencies the state's new umbrella mitigation plan for MDOT. The previous one offering 2/3 of dismembered Sears Island as the first "deposit" in its mitigation bank, was sent packing some months ago.  What must MDOT Commissioner Cole be thinking this time? What has he come up with?

It better be something new. For according to one federal agency staffer, "so far, there has been good overall agreement between the Corps, EPA, NOAA, and [US Fish and Wildlife Service]  that little or no credit should be given for direct wetland impacts in exchange for the preservation of 600 acres of Sears Island. "

In response, Senator Dennis Damon and his Transportation Committee members are hopping mad. They are discovering that they may well have been suckered by Governor B and the ecoyuppies. If they thought that giving  the Land Trusters 601 acres of Sears Island was going to allow logging clearing blasting, paving and dredging within the 340 acre industrial zone, then they were mistaken. Sorry. Nope. Not in the eyes of God or the Army Corps of Engineers.

The fedsters did allow that  "indirect impacts (fragmentation, non-point source runoff) from MEDOT projects would make sense for credit."  But not compensating for the Godzilla footprint a containerport like this would have on Sears Island.

Sears Island: Governor says port plan "inoperable".

The intrigue continues...Maine's governor and legislature slide helplessly into civil war over  integrity of environmentalists on the Joint Use Committee, who suddenly seem unwilling to honor their committment to "appropriate" port development on Sears Island

Which branch of Maine government has the final decision over the island splitting proposal?  The Governor, says Baldacci's office. JUPC is my creature. I trust the greenies.  But wait.....'We don't trust  'em, says the Legislature's Transportation Committee co-chair Senator Dennis Damon. No green payoff until AFTER a port is fully approved.   

Speaking in indignant response to the legislators, three land trust executives cry out Hold on there! This is a done deal! Give us our pound of island flesh first! Trust the Trusts!

Maine's conservative blogosphere  warns of a: "Baldacci Ready to Roll Over for Enviros on Sears Island Port"  What type of roll? "Baldacci wants to sign off on the easement and leave the port deal to the whims of enviro lawsuits."

(Indeed, legal knives can be heard sharpening, as both shade-tree enviromental advocates and Big Green Law Firms  gear up in anticipation of exploiting this target-rich environment. The many litigation-worthy and appeal worthy legal blunders that MDOT and its Committee of Fifty have committed, but tried to brush aside, in the course of their three year drive to get  Sears Island divided, are now ripe for litigation.) 

Who is correct in this struggle over the people's public property?  Read the below article and be amazed:

Action on Sears Island sought

Baldacci questions committee’s delay  
  By George Chappell BDN Staff  11/22/08

AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. John Baldacci remains committed to a “positive and productive future for Sears Island,” his office said Thursday.

The governor expressed his disappointment with a unanimous decision by the Legislature’s Transportation Committee on Tuesday to leave temporarily unsigned a negotiated agreement that balanced industrial and environmental concerns over the island’s use.

“The governor believes that the Joint Use Planning Committee's Final Report struck an important balance and is disappointed that the Transportation Committee decision effectively undermined the agreement, rendering it inoperable,” said Joy Leach, deputy director of communications for the Governor's Office.

Complete article here

As goes Moosehead Lake, so goes Maine - right, Governor?

Shall Moosehead Lake be crucified on the cross of corporatocracy?

Tourism and respectful exploitation of wild and natural northern Maine, or corporate profit driven growth centers sprawling over the wild landscape?

The question comes up repeatedly, even daily for Mainers: How shall our local economy be? Atomized into a robust democracy of small businesses, or congeal into superstores for the many and gated estates for the few.

Even Governor Baldacci, no enemy to big business, admits the plans of Plum Creek for the Moosehead Lake region are defined by the "S" word. And unfavorably so.)

Keep the faith, Governor. Don't equivocate. Better to leave a legacy of wild nature than be known as the hangman of Moosehead Lake.