FALL RIVER -- A sparse crowd attended last night's public hearing on the liquefied natural gas import facility proposed for the former Shell Oil Refinery, two miles north of Battleship Cove.
The four staff members from the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board listened to the plan's proponents and detractors, each keeping a stony poker face as politicians and local residents offered staggering statistics on the threat that the super-chilled fuel could pose.
The nine-member board, consisting of state officials and three members of the public, will convey the comments from the public hearing, as well as written comments, to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency responsible for licensing LNG terminals.
The Fall River terminal would include a dock where ships could unload the fuel into a storage tank onshore. The fuel would then be distributed by gas pipelines and by 25 to 30 trucks on average daily, according to Gordon Shearer, CEO of Weaver's Cove Energy Co., the company backing the plan.
New England needs the site to avoid an energy crisis, according to Shearer. "Our region is the most dependent on gas imports," he said, adding that Fall River has the highest natural gas prices in the state.
Only one New England port -- in Everett, off Boston Harbor -- accepts LNG. Facilities in Maryland, Georgia, and Louisiana also accept the fuel. Additionally, import sites have been proposed for Somerset and Providence.
Though Shearer said there is a demand for the fuel, Mayor Edward M. Lambert Jr. and state Rep. David N. Sullivan, D-Fall River, argued that their city's environment and public safety are not for sale.
"Certainly, we don't want to accept this at the cost of our lives," Lambert said. But he kept a calm demeanor throughout his speech, entreating the board members to work with the community to keep the facility out of the densely populated north end of the city.
David Fredericks, of Fall River, describing himself as "a numbers person," presented a few of the numbers behind the Weaver's Cove facility. He said the tank's potential energy rests at 1050 kilotons. In other words, an explosion of 1 percent of the tank's fuel could have about half the potential energy released by the atomic bomb at Hiroshima.
Others called attention to the potential economic and environmental impacts of the plan.
The facility is 24 miles inland, according to Tim Bennett, president of local environmental group Green Futures. Bennett said that trek up the Taunton River would pose a great risk to the river's ecosystems, as well as to those who live along the shore.
Narragansett Bay could be made inhospitable by LNG tankers, which span the length of three football fields. The effects of the tankers on pleasure crafts and shoreline residents would be felt throughout Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts, Bennett said.
"The whole Taunton River will be dictated by the LNG tankers," said James Hart, a Somerset resident who lives within a mile of the proposed Fall River facility.
"All you have to do is look at a map to see that this is not the right location for a facility this size," Bennett said.
He added that an off-shore location away from high populations would be desirable. Another speaker, Joe Carvalho, added that such a facility could be a reality -- a similar plant is being developed for the coast in Baja, Calif.
But Weaver's Cove officials say that such technology is far off. For now, they say, the best plan is theirs, which aims to address New England's high gas prices and need for fuel during cold winters like this one.
Jessica Resnick-Ault can be contacted by phone at 508-674-8401 or by e-mail at JRAult(at)projo.com.
