Gov. M. Jodi Rell threw a little beach party Thursday to celebrate New York state's rejection of the controversial Broadwater liquefied natural gas platform in Long Island Sound.
But she and other top state officials, as well as environmental activists who have fought the proposal for nearly three years, anticipate appeals from the international consortium that wants to build the $700 million LNG platform about 10 miles off the coast of Guilford.
Broadwater was "disappointed" with the defeat and a spokesman said that Connecticut is turning down a chance to save on rising energy costs that are at least partially responsible for about 2,700 state businesses closing during the first quarter of 2008.
Rell, during a news onference at Silver Sands State Park, said New York Gov. David Paterson called her Wednesday night with the good news that the billion-cubic-feet-per-day facility was sunk.
"I can only sum this up in three words," Rell said. "We did it. We did it. We did it and against an awful lot of odds, I'll tell you."
At around the same time, Paterson, in a news conference on the other side of the Sound, said the LNG platform would have set "a dangerous precedent of industrializing a waterway" that generations of people have tried to preserve.
New York's Department of State said the 1,200-foot-long, 82-foot-high platform would create environmental, navigational and safety hazards in the Sound.
"It is a real, true, enormous potentially Advertisement explosive magnet for terrorism that would be sitting right out here in Long Island Sound," Rell said to a group of about 30 beach visitors and about 20 reporters and photographers.
"Today's decision truly is a relief," Rell said, stressing that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which approved the Broadwater proposal, failed to see what Connecticut and New York officials found in the way of potential dangers.
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