Dominion company officials are hoping 2014 is remembered as a significant year with the approval and start of a multi-billion dollar construction project. The project’s end result would give Dominion Cove Point Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Plant in Lusby the capability of exporting natural gas all over the world.
For a variety of reasons, the $3.8 billion project has drawn opposition from several environmental organizations and some of the residents living adjacent to the plant.
On Friday, Jan. 3, Dominion officials met with members of the media to provide an overview of the plant’s current operations and plans for the transition to an export facility. Company representatives also discussed the project opponents’ criticisms of the export plan.
“Everybody is entitled to their opinion,” said Dominion Vice President of LNG Operations Michael D. Frederick, who added the opinions ought to be formed from correct information.
Frederick has worked for Dominion the past 32 years and led the company’s transition team in 2002 when the Cove Point plant was purchased from its previous owner, Oklahoma-based Williams Companies Incorporated. After nearly two-and-a-half years as Dominion Virginia Power’s director of Planning, Reliability and GIS Services, Frederick is back in Calvert to oversee operations at Cove Point.
The company’s presence in the community, said Frederick, has been significant. “This facility has been pretty good for Maryland,” he stated, explaining that Dominion’s philanthropic and environmental contributions are numerous. The Dominion Foundation has contributed to Calvert Library, the College of Southern Maryland and Calvert Marine Museum; and the company is the largest corporate sponsor of an artificial reef in the Chesapeake Bay. Over 40 area organizations have received grant funds from Dominion, said Frederick.
The gas plant at Cove Point has been in existence for several decades and Frederick said despite the alarms being sounded by project foes about ship traffic to the offshore pier, plus air and noise pollution, he noted the operation maintains a very low profile. “This facility is largely unknown to this area,” he said. “We’re not a big burden to the infrastructure and we are paying a big amount of taxes.”
Regarding specific fears expressed, Frederick responded as follows.
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