PROVIDENCE, RI – The U.S. Coast Guard today announced that it has denied Weaver’s Cove Energy’s appeal and affirmed that the waterway is navigationally unsuitable for LNG shipments into a land-based Fall River facility. This ruling upholds previous Coast Guard decisions handed down in 2007 and 2008, effectively blocking a proposed Liquefied Natural Gas terminal. A separate proposal from the company is still under appeal for a proposed “offshore” berth in Mount Hope Bay.
U.S. Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and U.S. Representatives Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Jim Langevin (D-RI), who have been working to block the siting of LNG marine terminals in urban communities that would require LNG tankers to pass by eleven Rhode Island towns and cities and more than 25 miles of densely populated coastline, applauded the Coast Guard’s decision.
“The Coast Guard’s letter is another reminder that Mount Hope Bay and the Taunton River are not appropriate places for an LNG terminal and associated vessel traffic,” said U.S. Senator Jack Reed. “From a safety, economic, and environmental standpoint, it is clear that Weaver’s Cove LNG proposal would place a burden on the Coast Guard, local law enforcement, taxpayers, and the resources of Mount Hope and Narragansett Bays. I will continue working with colleagues from Rhode Island and Massachusetts to oppose this project.”
“LNG tanker traffic would pose enormous risks to the vibrancy of Narragansett Bay and the safety of surrounding communities,” said U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “I’m committed to stopping this facility and glad that the Coast Guard reaffirmed that Weaver’s Cove is not the right place for an LNG terminal.”
“This decision from the Coast Guard reaffirms the concerns I have consistently heard from my constituents in opposition to the dangerous and ill-conceived Weaver’s Cove LNG proposal,” said Kennedy. “The people of Rhode Island and Massachusetts have made it abundantly clear that the burden represented by this project is one they are unwilling to bear.”
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