Navy Objection May Sink LNG Project

The U.S. Navy could help scuttle plans of a developer that would have LNG tankers trolling through the Navy's torpedo test range in Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay, according to a report in the Boston Herald.

Last month, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center asked federal regulators to reconsider the decision to approve a new liquefied natural gas storage facility in Fall River – which would get its LNG via giant ships passing through the bay.

The developer, Weaver's Cover LLP, has criticized the center's intervention in the controversial case, saying it was made too late.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission earlier this year temporarily put a freeze on all proceedings until it can decide whether it should rehear the Weaver's Cove LNG proposal.

But the Navy, in a new filing last week, said its objections should be heard because Weaver's Cove failed to inform it that LNG ships would sail through bay zones where it tests torpedoes, submarines and sonar devices.

Weaver's Cove informed some divisions within the Navy about its plans – but not the undersea warfare center, lawyers for the center said in a filing. (Source: Boston Herald)