Connecticut Governor Rell: Task Force Report Shows Broadwater Wrong on Every Count

March 12, 2008 -- Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell today announced that the Task Force she created to monitor and evaluate the proposed Broadwater liquefied natural gas (LNG) platform in the Long Island Sound has given her its final report, which finds federal regulators failed utterly to protect public interests or to consider viable alternatives to the project.

Governor Rell established the Long Island Sound LNG Task Force through Executive Order No. 9 in August 2005. The panel includes state lawmakers, agency chiefs, local leaders, energy experts and members of the public. It was charged with reviewing the project and the conclusions of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which announced in January it did not believe the project posed a significant environmental hazard to the Sound – a conclusion Governor Rell called “ludicrous.”

“The report from the Task Force is a scathing indictment of FERC’s single-minded focus on approving the Broadwater platform no matter what the evidence shows,” Governor Rell said. “After 2½ years of study, including hundreds of documents and 16 public hearings, my panel has reached three major conclusions: FERC never performed a serious analysis of the potential environmental consequences; FERC undertook an absurdly limited review of the alternatives to Broadwater; and the alternatives will likely be meeting the energy needs of both Connecticut and New York before the Broadwater project is ever completed and on line.

“On its own, each of these findings is enough to sink Broadwater,” the Governor said. “Together they are a full spread of torpedoes that ought to blow the entire project out of the water.

“I cannot fathom FERC’s insistence on moving forward with this environmental nightmare,” Governor Rell said. “I remain committed to preventing anyone from putting this enormous – and potentially explosive – industrial platform in the middle of one of our most important and environmentally sensitive landmarks. I intend to call incoming New York Governor David Paterson as soon as possible to discuss my strong opposition to this project and encourage him to take the same stance.

“I am deeply grateful to the Task Force for the dedication they have shown, and I especially want to thank the co-chairs, Senators Len Fasano of North Haven and Andrea Stillman of Waterford,” the Governor said. “FERC may have been unwilling to subject Broadwater to the scrutiny it deserves – but this Task Force has done an outstanding job in their stead. Their findings should serve as a loud alarm for officials in New York and elsewhere in Washington, D.C.”

“Broadwater and FERC have both failed in their attempts to demonstrate a real energy need requiring the construction of the world's largest floating LNG facility in the middle of one of our nation’s most precious and environmentally fragile natural resources,” Senator Fasano said. “In that respect, the work of this Task Force has exposed an unsettling truth – that the Broadwater project has always been more about corporate greed than about real energy solutions. It is my hope that the state of New York will heed our warning and reject the Broadwater project.”

Senator Stillman added: “The Broadwater proposal has never been anything more than a poorly conceived, band-aid solution to the comprehensive, long-term energy needs of the region; FERC’s shoddy prosecution of the many objections we raised betrays its single-mindedness about Broadwater approval and a contemptible lack of a sound national energy plan. Going forward, if FERC minimizes or ignores the findings of our Task Force and its determined effort over the past 2½ years it will only compound the affront that final Broadwater approval would represent.”

The Task Force identified numerous faults in the environmental analysis performed by FERC, including the use of old data and outdated maps (which had erroneous data on the locations of shellfish beds and lobstering grounds) and incorrect data on bird feeding and breeding areas.

“Clearly, FERC, in its rush to achieve the goal they set out to achieve, produced a sloppy, error-filled report to justify its own needs,” the Task Force concluded.

Governor Rell’s Task Force also found that FERC set an artificial level of natural gas “need” for the region of 1 billion cubic feet per day (1.0 bcf/d) – far higher than current actual demand – then set up its analysis in such a way that only Broadwater could meet it.

FERC eliminated from consideration any other project that could not increase supply to the region by as much as 1.0 bcf/d. Yet a March 2006 analysis by Synapse Energy Economics found that “nowhere in these [project] documents or in any other study is a requirement for this quantity of natural gas substantiated for the target market.”

“FERC starts with the answer and then frames the question,” the Governor’s Task Force said. “FERC’s analysis was wrong and purposely misleading.”

The analysis also failed to consider the effects on ongoing capacity upgrades to numerous other pipelines and LNG facilities serving the region. In fact, the Task Force reports, the planned increase of 400 million cubic feet per day on the Iroquois pipeline will be more than enough to meet demand, even without other planned improvements.

Moreover, FERC completely ignored another LNG project planned in New Jersey called BlueOcean that is expected to supply 20 percent more natural gas than Broadwater, be located closer to New York, serve more areas and face far less opposition.

In addition to the co-chairs, members of the Task Force were Commissioners Gina McCarthy of the Department of Environmental Protection; Dr. J. Robert Galvin, M.D., of the Department of Health, F. Philip Prelli of the Department of Agriculture, John A. Danaher III of the Department of Public Safety, James Thomas of the Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security and Emil H. Frankel of the Department of Transportation; Julie Belaga; Sue Eckert; Grant Westerson; Robert Mitchell; and Marten Toyen.

Source: Connecticut Governor

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