DCP Midstream drops plan for Searsport supertank!

DCP is so....yesterday!
Determined Mainers have prevailed against this well-heeled energy giant, convincing the town of Searsport's planning board that  DCP midstream's proposed supertank would be unsafe for the people and  bad for Penobscot Bay.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Pen Bay Pilot

Portland Press Herald

Bangor Daily News (archived)

More info  tbnt.org and PBW coverage

DCP Midstream drops plan for Searsport supertank!

DCP is so....yesterday!
Determined Mainers have prevailed against this well-heeled energy giant, convincingt the town of Searsport's planning board that  DCP midstream's proposed supertank would be unsafe for the people and  bad for Penobscot Bay.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Pen Bay Pilot

Portland Press Herald

Bangor Daily News

More info go to tbnt.org  and penbay.org

Searsport planning board votes against tank in first decision of long deliberation proces

Posted March 27, 2013, at 10:30 p.m. Bangor Daily News

SEARSPORT, Maine — An audience of about 100 people in Searsport’s Union Hall Wednesday evening listened closely as the town’s planning board began its deliberations on the controversial liquid propane gas project proposed for the Mack Point industrial zone.

DCP's lawyers,  glum for a change.

Flying knitting needles slowed and residents leaned closer to the board members as they voted at about 9 p.m. on the very first motion put forward in regard to the land use ordinance — that the buildings that would be erected in the town’s commercial district are not permitted in the zone for which they are proposed.

And in a unanimous show of hands, the five members of the Searsport Planning Board members voted in favor of that motion.

“They just voted this down,” a stunned David Italiaander, an opponent who has interested party status, whispered after the board made its vote. “They just denied the permit. I could dance, but [the board] said no demonstrations.”

Italiaander’s words, though likely very premature, were echoed by many of the project opponents in the room. Longtime Planning Board Chairman Bruce Probert said after the meeting was adjourned that the board members will “revisit all of it.” After the board members go through and vote on the remainder of the town’s land use ordinances in relation to the propane tank and terminal proposal, they will then go through the site planning and shoreland zoning ordinances. The ultimate decision will be made based on the 18 performance standards laid out in the town ordinance. Those standards touch on air quality, soil erosion, water pollution,exterior lighting and preserving and enhancing the landscape, among other points.

Efforts after the meeting to speak with representatives from DCP Midstream, the company which has proposed building a $40-million, 14-story-tall propane gas terminal and storage tank, were unsuccessful. The project has received permits from agencies including the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It awaits only the decision from the all-volunteer Searsport planning board, whose members have heard hours and hours of testimony and been reading thousands of pages of briefs and written comments in preparation for the deliberations.

Probert said last weekend that the planning board will meet on several more occasions before making a final decision, with the next meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Union Hall. He expects the final decision to be made this spring.

“It’s all part of the process,” he said.

Planning Board alternate Lee-Ann Horowitz said at the very beginning of the board’s deliberations that she believes the board is not the right governing body to make a decision. She was the sole member to vote against Searsport having jurisdiction in the matter.

“I think this whole procedure should be dealt with in another venue completely,” she said. “It’s way out of our league.”

Kristin Collins, the planning board’s attorney, said that they had to try.

“We have to take a stab at it, so someone can tell us we’re wrong,” she said.

The first portion of Wednesday night’s meeting was taken up by final arguments from the interested parties, including DCP Midstream; Italiaander; Ed Bearor, the attorney for the owner of Angler’s Restaurant; and Steve Hinchman, attorney for opposition group Thanks But No Tank.

TBNT & IIT file notice of intent to sue Army Corps over its DCP approvals.

SEARSPORT. On Wednesday, March 20th,  Thanks But No Tank (TBNT) and  Islesboro Islands Trust (IIT)  filed a 60-day Notice of Intent to sue the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) for violations of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Clean Water Act (CWA). 

DCP's proposed megatank site: forest in center foreground

These violations occurred when the Corps issued the May 2012 Environmental Assessment (EA) and CWA Section 404 permit for a 22.7 million gallon liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) marine import terminal, storage and distribution facility proposed by DCP Searsport LLC.

The Notice requests that the Corps immediately withdraw the 2012 EA and CWA permit and reassess the project in light of significant new information that has surfaced since the EA was issued.  As explained below, this new information demonstrates several important points, including:

• there is no need for a marine terminal to import foreign LPG;
• more cost-effective and less environmentally damaging practicable alternatives are available to meet Maine’s energy needs; and
• the Corps failed to consider the grave consequences for Penobscot Bay if the Searsport terminal is used to export LPG.

While releasing the Intent to Sue, IIT Executive Director Steve Miller declared: “By constraining the Corps’ EA to support the DCP terminal project and by arbitrarily excluding other viable solutions, the Corps failed its duty to provide federal, state and local decision-makers and the public with the information necessary to properly weigh the potential economic and environmental costs and benefits of the proposed action. Accordingly, the Corps must withdraw the 2012 EA and wholly re-do its analysis.”

Steve Hinchman, project attorney, added, “Recent events and new information demonstrate that the EA is wrong, out-of-date, and unreliable, and must be supplemented…There is no need for a new marine LPG terminal to import foreign LPG into Maine or anywhere on the East Coast.  New information demonstrates that other fuels and energy sources are practicable and reasonable alternatives to increased propane use.”

According to the legal filing, NEPA states that the Corps must withdraw the 2012 EA and initiate a supplemental analysis. Similarly, under the CWA, the Corps must withdraw the 2012 permit to fill wetlands under their jurisdiction and fully evaluate if there are less environmentally damaging alternatives that would supply the Maine energy market and/or to provide new export terminals for domestic LPG.

As Tara Hollander, TBNT Steering Committee, pointed out, “No company–including DCP–is using the marine import facilities that exist today to bring in foreign LPG. In fact, there is a glut of domestic LPG which costs at least a dollar less than imported LPG.”

Further background: The filing submitted by IIT and TBNT’s legal team methodically outlines repeated Corps failures in its review of the DCP terminal project under the required NEPA and CWA statutes:

• The EA fails to take a “hard look” at Maine’s LPG infrastructure, market trends and reasonable alternatives. The Corps failed to consider the current state of Maine’s existing LPG supply chain and infrastructure. And, they illegally excluded from the analysis any consideration of the ongoing and fundamental transformation of the Maine and global LPG and energy markets due to changes in production and supply. NEPA requires a “hard look” when a proposed action will affect the quality of the human environment in a significant manner or to a significant extent.

• The Corps limited the overall project purpose of the EA to the marine import of foreign-sourced LPG. Despite extensive public comment that, because of the ongoing boom in domestic gas production, Maine has no need for a marine LPG import terminal, the Corps applied a presumption to assume–without independent evaluation or verification–that the DCP project was viable and needed in the marketplace. The Corps excluded from review any consideration of non-marine (i.e. rail or truck) terminals, alternative sources of LPG, alternative fuels, such as natural gas and compressed natural gas and alternative energy sources such as biomass and solar.

• The Corps’ permit relied on unsubstantiated emergency response claims and failed to adequately consider potentially devastating human and environmental risks.

• The Corps failed to acknowledge the impacts of the dredging which the proposed LPG facility would require–dredging close to one million cubic yards of sediment from the Mack Point vicinity.

• The EA failed to consider the potential use of the Searsport facility as an LPG export terminal. Under NEPA regulations, the Corps must consider direct, indirect and cumulative effects of a proposed action, including “reasonably foreseeable future actions regardless of what agency (Federal or non-Federal) or person undertakes such other actions.”

The entire 60-day Notice of Intent to Sue can be downloaded here.  Additional documents pertaining to the Army Corps of Engineers can be found on our Army Corps Docs page.

February 25, 2013 Public Hearing on DCP Midstream LPG tank plan,

February 25, 2013 Searsport Public Hearing on DCP Midstream LPG tank plan. Audio Recordings (mp3s)
* Introduction 1min 45sec Part 1 Bud Rivers
* Steve Hinchman_v_Bud Rivers_30min25sec
* James Kilbreth_Bud Rivers_11min30sec
Part 2 Neil Frangesh
* Neil_Frangesh_pt1_10min29sec
* Neil_Frangesh_pt2_12min19sec.mp3
* neil_Frangesh_qa1_7min27sec
* Neil_Frangesh_qa2_12min12sec
Part 3 Public Speakers
* Pt3_intro2_amendmt_controlroon_4min17sec
* intro_housekeeping1_4min
* pubspeaker1_ann flack_petition_3min46sec
* pubspeaker2_mark lomond_2min55sec
* pubspeaker3_catherine_robin_3min5sec

* pubspeaker4_ann_dodge_4min28sec 

* pubspeaker5_ben_crimaudo_3min19sec 

* pubspeaker6_jeff_marger_3min28sec 

* pubspeaker7_joanne_moesswilde_1min58 

* pubspeaker8_terry_fischer_6min 

* pubspeaker9_ridgely_fuller_3min16sec
* pubspeaker10_matt_summer_1min51sec
No speaker 11
* pubspeaker12_nancy_galland_6min57

* pubspeaker13_phyllis_coelho_2min57sec 

* pubspeaker14_barbara_andrews_proberg_q_1min3sec 

* pubspeaker15_david_smith_1min58sec 

* pubspeaker16_robert_iserbyt_2min5sec 

* pubspeaker17_lew_macgregor_4min3sec 

* pubspeaker18_jon_olsen_3min33sec 

* pubspeaker19_don_white_3min26sec
* pubspeaker20_ron_huber_3min58sec 

* pubspeaker21_stephanie_staples_2min17sec 

* pubspeaker22_jim_bresman_5min16sec 

* pubspeaker23_joe_slocum_2min43sec 

* pubspeaker24_suzanne_tietcha_2min22sec 

* pubspeaker25_scott_moore_3min25sec
* pubspeaker25_scott_moore_3min25sec
* motion to close mtg_audience_oppo_6min47sec 

* angry end of meeting short version_4min45sec

Searsport vs DCP. Round 2 of public hearing begins.

Following wednesday's storm-blocked  event, The public hearing on the DCP Midstream gigtank plan for upper Penobscot Bay went forward on Thursday.

The People spoke. The People presented. The Planning Board questioned and discussed. The New York Times was in attendance tonight, complete with photographer  The two were given much juicy background info,  internet links and, naming names.  Bangor Daily News put a story out about the hearing.

Residents of Cape Jellison/Stockton Springs gave presentations, as did realtors about declining sales and home values, Senior Citizens and their concerns, Friends of Sears Island and a loooooong discourse between Buddy Hall's appraiser and DCP's lawyers (Hall is owner of restaurant and motel abutting  DCP's proposed tank site)

One important event was Searsport resident Dave Italiaander's  presentation click here (pdf) showing that the company must be  misrepresenting itself to the people of Maine, because DCP exports LPG gas. It doesn't import it.   According to Italiaander:

"LPG imports are virtually non-existent, except  from Canada. There are no water borne imports. 

"LPG and Propane prices 

are falling. 

"Propane prices are near a 10 year low.

"DCP told their investors that they are going to increase their LPG exports by 200 to 250 thousand barrels a day" Italiaander told the board.

"That is almost 8 million tons of additional exports a year, or 175 large, ocean-­-going LPG Tankers.  Their proposed Searsport mega-tank would hold around 43,000 Metric tons; a large LPG tanker holds around 45,000MT.  DCP needs 5 new terminals the size of this one just to handle their new exports"

Army Corps of Engineers washes hands of responsibility Italiaander said he spoke to the Army Corps of Engineers and to town officials about the project.
"Once this terminal is built" he told the board,  "the Corps would have no jurisdiction nor review if the applicant wanted to export rather than import.  
"Neither would the  Town of Searsport. It seems that it would require no more than a notification to the DEP and Coast Guard."

"I hope that it is now clear," Italiaander told the Searsport Planning Board,  "that it is a virtual impossibility that this is an import terminal and a virtual certainty that it is an export terminal."

This company exports propane, it does not import it."

UPDATES AS REPORTS COME IN

Good Harbor Report on DCP's megatank plan comes out!

NEW! Good Harbor Report on DCP's megatank plan comes out!

Dramatic recent changes in global energy prices buttress environment and safety elements of the  no-build scenario.  MEDIA COVERAGE  Maine Things Considered MPBN  

Key Findings:

·       An independent blast analysis, which found that under a variety of accident scenarios, an explosion or leak at the terminal would cause lethal and devastating impacts to nearby homes and businesses, and to travelers on Route One;  

·       The lack of a cost sharing plan, which would transfer significant project costs from the LPG developer to local communities;

·       Gaps in current regulations, which leave citizens and businesses unprotected; and

·       Insufficient depths in the Searsport harbor and at the existing pier, which will require expensive and environmentally damaging dredging before ocean going LPG ships can safely access the port.

Clarke also cautioned regulators to look carefully at dramatic recent changes in global energy prices, which are leading industry to convert import terminals into export facilities.

Maine Lobsters visit DCP Midstream headquarters in Downtown Denver.

Coloradans spoke out Saturday out in downtown Denver in the plaza before DCP Midstream's 25th floor headquarters in the Republic Plaza skyscraper..  

Listen to a 6 and a half minute recording phoned-in to WRFR community radio during the event 01/12/13  (mp3)

 Click Here for photogalleries of these Lobsters at the DCP HQ and elsewhere in Denver.  beseeching DCP Midstream's new leader Wouter van Kempen to drop the company's  controversial plan to build the east coast's biggest LPG gas tank in this scenic backwater, heart of the Maine lobsterfishing industry

Their crimson colors ("we're steamed!" t'was muttered) stood out nicely from on high. About this issue: here and here  

Activists Form Circle to Create Monster DCP Tank Footprint in Snow

Activists Form Circle to Create 

                    Monster DCP Tank Footprint in Snow

Peter Taber*
Wild Maine Times 1/6/13

SEARSPORT -- Nearly 200 people from as far away as Gorham and Mount Desert Island showed up at Searsport's Mosman Park Saturday afternoon to take part in a regional educational exercise calculated to demonstrate the vast footprint that would be covered by a mammoth refrigerated tank for liquefied propane the Denver firm of DCP Midstream LLC has been openly fighting to build at nearby Mack Point for more than two years.

Speakers at the open air forum  that followed included  two of Belfast's former poet laureates, Elizabeth Garber and Karin Spitfire, who spoke their verse created for this occasion.  


TV News Coverage
Penobscot Bay Watch Ron Huber announced the  recent fall from grace of DCP Midstream's combined CEO, President and Chairman Tom O'Connor and his replacement from within the company ranks as a hopeful sign. He spoke on the rise of  sympathetic opposition to the Megatank plan in DCP's Denver hometown by activists fighting Big Gas 's frack attack on Colorado, and expressed hope the change in DCP leadership would bring a reconsideration of its Searsport Megatank proposal.

Fifth generation Searsporter Harlan McLaughlin held forth on the need to resist, to prevent blots on the landscape and rips in the social fabric.

Singer-songwriters  Emilia Dahlen of Gorham  and George Skala of Stockton Springs and led the gathering in renditions of their creations, respectively, "Circle Round, Circle Round"  and "Stand and Deliver".

Reflecting the regional nature of concern the proposed mega-tank project has aroused,  participants at Saturday's Searsport event came from Belfast, Castine, Freedom, Penobscott, Eddington, Frankfort, Morrill, Lincolnville, Northporth, Stockton Springs, Fryeburg, Swanville, Surrey, Orland, MDI, Deer Isle, Bucksport, Liberty, Searsmont, Camden, Monroe, Brooks, Knox and Waldoboro.

Standing under cold but sunny skies, participants from throughout the Penobscot Bay region and beyond joined hands and spread out evenly for more than 635 feet along the circumference of a circular depression cut the previous day in the snow at the shoreside public park. Their effort was to mark with their combined bodies the full extent of the outer walls of the tank DCP is striving against mounting opposition to erect just to the east at Mack Point near Route 1 homes and businesses and GAC, Inc., the largest chemical plant in Maine.
Were it to be built, the mega-tank would be more than 200 feet in diameter, rise the height of a 14-story building and contain nearly 23 million gallons of propane maintained in its liquefied state only through a large and sophisticated refrigeration plant entirely dependent upon the power grid. It would be part of a terminal complex that would involve clearcutting some 25 acres of woodland and the construction of a mile-long cryogenic pipeline. The mega-tank itself would be the largest such structure in North America and possibly in the world.

"This is not 'just another tank' as the folks at DCP want us to believe," Harlan McLaughlin of Searsport, one of the speakers at Saturday's event, asserted. He pointed out that it would be almost three times higher than the largest conventional petroleum products tank in the tank farm complex at Mack Point and would have more than seven times the capacity. 

He and other participants also expressed fear that if built the mega-tank would be an unsightly blot on the landscape with the potential for catastrophic accident as well as being a particularly vulnerable and tempting target for terrorists. These negative factors combined, they said, would not only threaten the security of area residents but also drive down property values and deal a devastating blow to tourism, which is the economic lifeblood of the region.    

Critics of the project also reject DCP's claim the mammoth tank and associated marine terminal is necessary for Maine's energy independence. They cite the fact that less than one household in 20 uses propane as a primary heating fuel and that number has long been dwindling. Further, they doubt it would be an import facility, as the Denver company fronting for fossil fuel giants Duke Energy and Phillips 66 claims. Rather, they see the $50 million project as much more likely intended for export of the glut of domestic propane that has been realized in the past half dozen years as a result of new fracking and horizontal boring technology. They note that propane is currently selling in Europe for a dollar more a gallon than domestically.

McLaughlin remarked on the reason for the exercise, namely to demonstrate viscerally to all those looking on just how large the mega-tank would be. "There's no other real way to conceive of the hugeness of this monster," he said.

"I'm a hands-on kind of guy," McLaughlin added, gazing across the expanse of snow to distant participants on the other side. "I can read all these figures about this thing being 138 feet high and 202 feet wide but it doesn't really make sense how damn big it is until I can see it all marked out in the real world. That's no doubt why DCP keeps refusing to honor its promise to at least provide us with a 3D scale model. They say that's beyond their capability -- if you can believe that."

"I can't believe that at all," an obviously disgusted Peter Wilkinson of Belfast, one of the event organizers, rejoined. "They gave us a couple of dots on a four-foot projector screen to show us what this behemoth would look like and they said something about needing a lot of computer memory to adequately represent it on a computer. They've consistently under-represented this. Of course they could have done what we did -- anyone could have -- and it cost almost nothing. A pail of wooden stakes, a can of spray paint and a surveyor's tape -- well, I already had that last one. Of course, marking it out in Mosman Park like we did and letting people look at that was the last thing in the world they wanted to do."

Saturday's event was a reprise for Wilkinson and partner Maryjean Crowe, who organized a similar event on 48 hours short notice in Belfast on Nov. 18th that drew some 250 people to form a massive tank-sized circle.

Members of Searsport's board of selectmen, its town manager and state representative and other municipal officials, as well as its planning board, which will resume permit hearings on DCP's application Wednesday, Jan. 16, were provided with written invitations to attend Saturday's educational event. There were no reports that any of them in fact did so

* Ron Huber edited this release by Peter Taber, post publication.
  

Wild Maine Times
Peter Taber, publisher
pipeandtaber@gmail.com
Searsport, Maine 04974
207-930-5753

DCP's boss gets the boot. Will the new leader finally pull the Searsport megatank plan?

Environmentalists and bay area tourism industry hope new boss isn't same as the old boss.

SEARSPORT. "Wouter van Kempen!" the amplified voice rang out across Searsport Harbor to the unbroken forest ridgeline of the Mack Point Wood  "Hear us, Wouter!"  Searsport's Maine's Circle of Resistance, hundreds strong,  stood in snowy Mosman Park, listening.

For 44 year old Wouter van Kempen is the new boss of DCP Midstream. Formerly leading DCP's Gathering and Processing division, and former Chief Development Officer of the Combined Enterprise,  Wouter graduated from Erasmus University in Rotterdam with a master's in business economics, has dual Dutch /US citizenship,and resides in Denver.

Tom O'Connor, driving force behind the company's hapless effort to force an unprofitable giant liquified petroleum gas tank onto Searsport, has been packed off to his estate in Evergreen, with Van Houten assuming the company's CEO and Presidency. "Effective Immediately". 

 Now van Kempen must clean up the mess Tom left behind before his precipitous fall from grace.

The circle of hundreds,  who gathered at Mosman Park  to show their opposition to DCP's  megatank plan, listened as Penobscot Baywatch Ron Huber took his turn speaking to the assembled sending his words out to the new company chieftain., laying out a scenario for Wouter van Kempen:

Wouter, can you hear us? Save us from O'Connor's Folly!

" Wouter, you can make a new beginning by disavowing your predecessor's outdated, wrongheaded Searsport LPG megatank plan.

" You can drop Mad Tom's proposed Tank to Nowhere, bloody nosed-even in  its application stage, leaking cash by the bushel basket in a fierce struggle between DCP's  lawyers and those of the east coast ruling classes, who for generations have made this bay and its islands and piney shores their home.  Would you tankify Estes Park? Here neither!

Ejection seat. Tom O'Connor has left the building.

Why?  Because if the project, presently raging back and forth through state and federal courts and the offices of state and federal elected politicians, were ever built, it promises investors tens of millions in losses each year. Not profits!

The long and short of it? The price of domestic gas has plummeted so far below that of imported gas that the tank plan is outmoded. O'Connor's Folly is DOA.

"Wouter Van Kempen, you can spare your company  much cost and embarrassment, and spare yourself from shunning by the New England aristocracy! Simply withdraw the Searsport project for "reconsideration due to changes in domestic gas availability" or some other bit of politesse.

"Penobscot Bay's  lobstermen  and resort businesses will bless you, Wouter van Kempen.

"Finally, Van Kempen, pay off the wergild, the blood debt DCP has accrued by the dastardly community-dividing actions of O'Connor's public relations chief Roz Eliot.  Eliot's cruel and cynical tactics will divide Searporters  for generations, and have made DCP into a four letter word on the Maine coast.

Mack Point Wood left side of photo. Mack Pt Port on right

"Redeem your company's good name, Wouter! Let the Mack Point Wood and its ancient peat and wetlands continue unblasted into the future. Do not stoop in the shadowy drain of your not-very-illustrious ex-boss.

"A true rising tide lifts  business, nature and the people, Mr. van Kempen.

"Be that tide!

"The choice is yours, Wouter Van Kempen! "

Poems and songs followed, as the region's creative economy and scenic tourism business owners prayed that DCP's new leader would pull his predecessor' misguided DCP megatank plan before their forest is flattened, its soils torn away, its streams filled, the granite bedrock itself blasted flat and the giant steel folly rises obscenely and uselessly into the viewsheds of a dozen towns.

DCP tank opponents to demonstrate project's footprint on January 5th TANK OPPONENTS TO DEMONSTRATE PROJECT’S FOOTPRINT JANUARY 5, 2013

Opponents of the proposed Searsport LPG mega-tank will gather at Mosman Park on Water Street in Searsport on January 5th at 1:00 pm to form a 202-ft diameter, “human chain” circle, representing the actual size footprint of the proposed tank. A similar circle comprised of nearly 250 people was assembled in Belfast on November 18^th of this year.

 

The January 5 event comes on the eve of the final round of Public Hearings for the controversial project, scheduled for January 16-18 in Searsport. Organizers say the event is not intended as a protest, but rather as an action to demonstrate the actual size of the proposed tank’s footprint for all to see.

The idea was spawned when project developer DCP Midstream LLC, repeatedly declined to produce a realistic scale model for public viewing and scrutiny. 

Exasperated opponents then took it upon themselves to demonstrate just how large an area the tank would cover by assembling their first 202-foot diameter circle last month in Belfast.  A cluster of helium-filled balloons hovering 137 feet above the field demonstrated the proposed tank’s height.  That event received widespread attention and helped attract hundreds of people from around the region to the first round of public hearings in November.

 

Anyone who is interested in this issue, especially citizens of Searsport, is invited to come and participate in this dramatic, one-hour event, and to witness just how big the proposed tank’s footprint would be.   

Opponents say the massive, 137-foot tall tank poses many dangers and threats to the region, and should not be built in Searsport.

In case of inclement weather, the event will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, January 12, 2013.

 _______________

Contact information:

Peter Wilkinson – 338-4019

Night Two 11/27/12 DCP tank hearing. Big Gas speaks & shows slides

On the second night of the Searsport planning board's public hearing on DCP Midstream's megtank plan,the company rolled out its version of visual impact. Listen below to 23 recordings from the hearing.  
Audios from all week

NOVEMBER 27, 2012
Introduction to hearing by  Bruce Probert, Planning board chair. 2min 35sec

Kelly Boden introduces DCP speakers 1min 46sec

Kelly Boden Introduces the DCP plan 8min 12 sec

Don Baldridge, DCP, 4min 56 sec

Steve Wallace  8min 51sec

Introduction to slide show  3min 56

DCP Slide Show Part 1 5min 26 sec

DCP Slideshow Part 2 7min 41 sec

DCP Slideshow Part 3 4min 25sec

DCP Slideshow Part 4 7min 46sec

 DCP Slideshow Part 5    5min 21sec
DCP Slideshow Part 6 7min 11 sec
DCP PANEL 1

Jeff Hurteau, VP Marketing 5min 45 sec

Jeff Hurteau Part 2 4min 5 sec

Jeff Hurteau Part 3 7min

Planning Board QA1   7min 42sec

Planning Board QA2  8min 48sec

Steve Hinchman QA1  7min

Steve Hinchman QA2 6min 2sec

Steve Hinchman QA3 Raj 9min 59sec

Steve Miller QA 25min 25sec

David Italiaander 5min 15sec

Meeting Adjournment 53sec

END

Night Four 11/29/12. DCP vs locals struggle continues: Listen to the people testify against the megatank plan.

Listen to speakers at the November 29, 2012 public hearing in Searsport on the DCP Midstream plan to build an LPG gas megatank on Mack Point (downloadable mp3s) Landowners, Business owners and Islesboro Islanders have their say.
Listen to audios from all week

Introduction by Bruce Probert, Searsport Planning Board Chair 2min 10sec

First Panel   (SECOND & THIRD PANELS ARE BELOW)

Introduction of TBNT panel by Steve Hinchman 2min

Testimony of Tom Gocze 8min 15sec

Testimony of  Diane Stevens 4min 
 
Testimony of Kevin Kelly 1 min 15 sec

Testimony of J Lucas 8min 45 sec

Testimony of Ted Kessler 4min 12 sec

Testimony of Elaine Tucker  3 min

Cross Examination of above panel by DCP atty James Kilbreth 18 min 50 sec

Second Panel 

Introduction to Second panel  12 sec

Jay Economy 4min 15 sec

Brenda Liston  15min 25 sec

Laurie Schweikart 7min 20 sec

Phyllis Sommer 8min 37 sec

Rick Schweikhart 4min

Steve Tanguay 10 min 48 sec

Board Q&A 5min

DCP Q&A  Jay McCormack 6min 28sec

DCP Q&A Brenda Liston 5min 43 sec

DCP Q&A Phyllis Sommer 5min

DCP Q&A Schweikart 1min 19sec

DCP Q&S Steve Tanguay 3min 15sec

Dave Gelinas Q&A 2min

Board QA

THIRD PANEL. ISLESBORO ISLANDERS

Introduction and Steve Miller 19min 35sec

Andrew Coombs 53 sec

Bill Warren 2min 52 sec

Bill Boardman  2min 39sec

Alison Wood (static first 12 seconds) 5min 13sec

Arch Gillies 10min 27sec

Board Q&A 1 min 39sec

DCP atty Kilbreth Q&A #1  8min 16sec

DCP Kilbreth Q&S #2 2min 18sec

David Gelinas Q&A 9min 22 sec

Steve Hinchman "Cleanup Questions" 2min 55sec

Final question DCP  atty Kilbreth   re DMR response, to  end of hearing 1min


END

Tank battle rages in Searsport for third night - reports

Searsport's planning board has held  three  public hearings this week on  gas middleman giant DCP Midstream's increasingly sketchy plan to build a liquified petroleum gas megatank in the remaining Mack Point Woods, the buffer between existing oil and gas tank farms and  both Penobscot Bay and  US Route 1.
(Listen to audios from all week)

MONDAY NIGHT 11/26/12:  the Searsport planning board  ruled on a succession of would be  interested parties;

Dave Italiaander of Searsport getting interested party status

Approved: Thanks But No Tank, Ed Bearor representing the (owner of Baits Motel); Friends of (part of) Sears Island , Ann Flack & Janet Williams representing "the retirees"; Dave Gelinas, Penobscot River and Bay Pilots,  David Italiaander, Chris Hyke, Phyllis Somer, Arlene Leighton, Diane Messer.

Denied City of Belfast (no show); Arlene Leighton; Charlene Farris Searsport historian;
Nancy Galland and Joelle Madiec, both residents of Stockton Springs.

Dr. Phani Raj

TUESDAY NIGHT 11/27/12: DCP's dog U& pony show; their hired guns, like industry expert Phani Raj,  earning their pay by showing power point presentations of questionable data and images, purporting to show what a wonderful harmless, innocuous, patriotic opportunity they were offering to area residents. Their pettifoggery instead earned each of them a goodly share of contemptuous laughter from the citizenry arrayed before them.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT 11/28/12 Tensions flare as police scuffle with, remove elderly Mainer from the public hearing, which featured a presentation of the "Fannon Report. (47pg pdf) a study of the economic impact of the tank on municipal services, property values, tourism, and property taxes prepared by Nancy Fannon

Hinchman for the People

Meeting attendee reports:  "Attorneys for TBNT Steve Hinchman and for Angler’s Restaurant, Ed Bearor, shredded her presentation and methodology.

Among the shortcomings illustrated by cross examination was a basic lack of a fact check on any information provided to her by town officials."  Ken Agabian noted that Fannon cites the economic base of Searsport as small boat building and industrial businesses,

[An economic hegemony long vanished from the waterfront,  found only in this waterfront town's Penobscot Marine Museum. -ed]

Later, Nancy Fannon did admit there would be a negative effect on property value which she could not easily quantify and a negative effect of tourism.  Her report can be read on the www.TBNT.org website under the document’s page.

Ken Agabian of TBNT wrote  that Cross examination of DCP Midstream safety and project management personnel focused  on three concerns  (1) why are there no “exclusion zone” around the tank similar to LPG tanker vessels; (2) DCP admitted in the last year there has only been ONE tanker to deliver LPG to their facility in Chesapeake, VA  and (3)  one of the only other rural LPG facilities that DCP operates is in Berlin, VT with total storage capacity of just 90,000 gallons.  This is in stark contrast with their plans for Searsport."

Police Action: The Bangor Daily News reported " A confrontation between police and opponents of a liquid propane tank under consideration by the town planning board erupted in the lobby outside the meeting Wednesday night after an officer evicted an elderly man. Almost three hours into the meeting in the Searsport District High School cafeteria.".click for full story

TBNT response to police action. Spokesperson for TBNT KIen Agabian  issued a statement that "the removal from the audience of a TBNT member engaged in a conversation with me from the audience was completely uncalled for and the actions of an overzealous officer".

"We truly hope it is the first and last time we witness this. We have spoken to the police chief and asked him in no uncertain terms for assurances for Chairman Probert to run the hearings. There was no disturbing the testimony or disrupting the proceedings in any way until the police officer took it upon himself to respond in an action which was wholly uncalled for. What the member was objecting to is the Searsport Planning Board’s consultant answering questions on DCP’s behalf. This is wrong and should not continue"

Below the photo:the Fannon report.

Will forest in lower half of photo  be bulldozed, blasted & coated w/concrete & steel?

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Fannon Report  According to a meeting participant, the Fannon Report, funded by DCP, "basically leaned toward discounting any negative effects and accentuating what few positive effects existed."  The study examined the impact of an LPG terminal in Turkey and concludes that  residents of a Turkish coastal area were not upset when their ocean views were obscured. Therefore Americans of Penobscot Bay should too. Oooookay....

Still to come:
Night Four of Tank Battle of Searsport. In which TBNT and Islesboro Islands Trust show their mettle.

Will DCP wreck Penobscot Bay for a tax writeoff?

The Searsport Planning Board held its second night of  public hearings on the controversial proposal by Colorado based Liquid Petroleum gas distributor DCP Midstream to set up the east coast's biggest LPG tank in Searport Maine.

Listen to audios from all week

 DCP's hired dogs and ponies earned their pay by showing power point presentations of masses of highly questionable data and images, purporting to show what a wonderful harmless, innocuous, patriotic opportunity they were offering to area residents. The pettifoggery instead earned each of them a goodly share of contemptuous laughter from the citizenry arrayed before them.

Dr. Phani Raj

 One of DCP's hired guns, "industry expert" Dr Phani Raj , earned the most hisses and mocking laughter. Self described as a longtime master of every fact about LPG, from  the engineering  specifications for plants to the safety and security systems, Dr Strangelove-like, Doctor Raj wanted the people to love this bomb of a megatank.

 Perfectly safe, he assured the crowd, flipping through powerpoints.  While a BLEVE or other mishap was possible, it would never happen. Even the planning board was taken aback by Dr Raj's optimistic fortunetelling. The good doctor's prophetic sense failed him however, when asked by the lawyer repping the owner of the Baits Motel what would happen if terrorists whacked the tank. Would it withstand it? Or would  area residents and their millions of visitors be subject to sudden incineration syndrome?  LPG super expert Raj shrugged. Not his department. This sudden drop in omniscience resulted in hoots and guffaws among the audience, and stern looks from the Searport planning board officials

Then it was Question Time!
 DCP's smoke and mirrors melted away under questioning from the People and  several attorneys aiding them in the struggle against the corporados.

David Italiaander quizzed DCP officials over the financial irrationality of building this 22.4 million gallon import tank  (5 minute mp3 )at a time when domestic propane supplies are at historic highs.

David Italiaander

"How long," Italiaander asked, "will DCP lose $120 million dollars a year importing propane?"  He observed that most energy industry analysts agree that thanks to the new technology of hydro-fracking, propane stocks are projected to be abundant domestically into the foreseeable future.

David Italiaander, right, quizzes DCP

"Are we really to believe that you're going to invest 100s of millions of dollars in losses, to have a terminal that might in 10 or 15 years - if the market turns around -  make money? That's really what you're asking us to believe?" Italiaander asked. "Is that really your contention?"

Company officials hemmed and hawed. The market is fickle, they said.  Maybe someday it WILL be profitable? Who knows? Their inability to explain the reason for the megatank  project, given the tremendous losses the company would incur operating it, makes one wonder: What is really going on? Is exporting, rather than importing propane the real plan?

For, Italiaander pointed out, while DCP Midstream would lose hundreds of millions  a year importing propane through Searsport, the company would turn a tidy profit by exporting liquified propane out of the US at Searsport.

Many others spoke before Italiaander. Their voices will appear here as they come available.

One can't help but wonder if it is as simple and tawdry as a highranking DCP official  in charge of the project with relatives or friends among the Colorado contractors that would swarm the site, deforesting, bulldozing and blasting the Mack Point woods into oblivion,  erecting a perfectly useless eyesore on the coast of Penobscot Bay, then taking their pay and going home?

Will Penobscot Bay be sacrificed to help DCP's tax accountants with a loss leader?

Or will Searsport become a planetary disgrace, vomiting out LPG by the tankerload to boost carbon consumption around the planet?

Neither prospect is good!