"The Sierra Club will try to use a 40-year-old legal settlement to scuttle plans by Dominion Resources Inc to convert a liquefied natural gas terminal in Maryland into a major export hub."
"The environmental group, which opposes the export terminal as part of its wider fight against natural gas drilling from shale deposits, can weigh in on certain changes at the site of the proposed terminal under a 1972 legal agreement.
The Sierra Club says that under that settlement, it has a say over whether Dominion can convert an import terminal at Cove Point, near a state park, into an export plant. Dominion's CEO disagreed with that view during a conference call with analysts on Thursday.
The Sierra Club and the Maryland Conservation Council made the deal with the then owner of the planned Cove Point terminal, just south of Calvert Cliffs State Park. Dominion, the current owner, wants to convert the facility from an import terminal to an export plant that would ship up to 1 billion cubic feet of cheap U.S. natural gas a day to foreign markets where it would fetch a higher price."
Ayesha Rascoe reports for Reuters April 27, 2012.
SEE ALSO:
"Dominion Resources' Cove Point Natural Gas Terminal Faces Challenge" (AP)
"Trouble With the Top Man" (New York Times)
"Natural Gas Is on a Roll, Executive Declares" (Green/NYT)