U.S. Secretary of Commerce Overrules Maryland’s CZMA Objections to Sparrows Point LNG Project
The Baltimore Sun reports that U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez has overruled the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) objections of the State of Maryland to the Sparrows Point LNG terminal proposal. In July 2007, Maryland denied the project’s consistency with the state’s coastal zone management plan and project developer AES Corp. appealed the decision to the Secretary of Commerce. According to the Secretary’s decision, “[T]he [Sparrows Point LNG] Project is consistent with the objectives of the CZMA: it furthers the national interest in a significant and substantial manner; the national interest furthered by the Project outweighs the Project’s adverse coastal effects; and there is no reasonable alternative available for the Project.”