After stopping the project clock on both liquefied natural gas terminal proposals off Gloucester in July, the Coast Guard said last week that it is satisfied with the information provided so far by the two companies proposing the ports and it will restart the clock today.
The Coast Guard had cited concerns raised by the state secretary of environmental affairs when issuing a certification of the draft environmental impact reports.
"We're definitely pleased that the clock is ticking once again," said Douglas Pizzi, a spokesman for Excelerate Energy, one of the companies proposing a port off Gloucester. "It represents a lot of hard work by a lot of people, including in the company and the regulators."
Unless there are other delays, the final environmental impact statement could be published at the end of the month. The Massachusetts Environmental Protection Agency and the Coast Guard would hold public hearings on the statement in November. Gov. Mitt Romney, who can veto the project, would have to make a decision by the end of December.
Each project's proposal phase has a clock of 240 business days to be completed. The Coast Guard stopped the project's time line from November until March because of environmental concerns.
In July, Stephen Pritchard, secretary of the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, certified the draft environmental impact statements of Excelerate Energy and Suez Energy North America, the two companies seeking to construct deepwater ports off Gloucester, but said they would need to supply more information for the final draft to be certified.
Specifically, Pritchard's report said he wanted more information on alternatives, such as land-based off-loading terminals, more northerly deepwater ports that connect to the HubLine gas pipe under Massachusetts Bay, finding other means of supplying New England with natural gas and renewable energy sources or energy conservation.
"The (draft) does provide limited information regarding each of these types of alternatives but does not provide adequate detail regarding individual alternatives or a meaningful cross-comparison of benefits and impacts," the report said.
Pritchard required a more detailed explanation of how it will bury the pipeline, which would run from the port, about 13 miles southeast of Gloucester, to the HubLine near Salem, while making sure marine life can repopulate the area and that fishing gear does not catch on the pipe.
In addition, the companies' draft reports projected that three fishing jobs would be lost during construction of the terminal, followed by six more during its operation. Pritchard said that given the weakened state of the fishing industry because of increased regulation, the impact may be greater than predicted.
Once Excelerate completes and releases its final environmental impact report, public hearings, similar to those of last month, will be held.
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