Save The Bay has launched an aggressive anti-LNG campaign. This image is featured prominently on the group's Web site. (Courtesy Save The Bay)
NEWPORT, R.I. – Save The Bay has announced an aggressive media campaign against a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Mount Hope Bay that opponents charge poses significant safety and environmental hazards.
The $12,000 blitz will feature advertisements on radio, in Newport and Jamestown newspapers and on billboards on Routes 195 and 24. Save The Bay’s Web site has also been tailored to reflect the prominence of the issue. Rather than their normal home page, which features a broad array of issues, headlines and events, visitors today are instead greeted with a stark image of an LNG tanker with a bright yellow banner strewn across the foreground that reads: “The LNG Threat.” Links are also provided directing visitors to “The Latest News,” an online petition, and electronic contribution form.
The target for the ads is of course, Weaver’s Cove Energy, which has been moving forward with plans to build a $700-million LNG facility in Mount Hope Bay.
It is the first push back from opponents of the plan after the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston ruled that the state’s Coastal Resources Management Council missed their chance to weigh in on the proposal.According to a decision issued Oct. 26, CRMC effectively gave its approval to the plan by its failure to hold hearings on the matter within a designated 6-month time frame.
Combined with the Coast Guard’s recent assessment that the off-shore site poses no significant safety threat to the area, the decision paves the way for Weaver’s Cove to move forward with its application that would bring massive LNG tankers through the East Passage of Narragansett Bay on their way to Fall River.
The proposal, which would require dredging in both Narragansett and Mount Hope bays, has drawn vociferous opposition from residents who claim that the tankers pose a safety hazard. The state’s maritime community has also expressed outrage over the plan, as boating and bridge traffic would need to be shut down any time a tanker arrives for a delivery.
George “Ted” Gehrig, president of Weaver’s Cove, told the Providence Journal that the regulatory process for approving the project is designed to protect the public “and it should be allowed to work. We’d love to sit down with Save The Bay and discuss the issues and talk about the facts.”
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Newport, RI
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If it smells like a skunk, and looks like a skunk, no amount of rhetoric can change what it is. Where it decides to hunker down will affect everyone in its proximity. Unlike the skunk, it will not eventualy go away.
I think we should save the bay, not destroy it with LNG