Port Canaveral commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to not sell land to a company that wants to build a liquefied natural gas plant that could help supply both the cruise and space industry on the Space Coast.<\/p>\n
A 50-acre barge canal property on Merritt Island, part of the port authority\u2019s property, was the target of an unsolicited offer by Berkshire Hathaway and Chesapeake Utilities, which wanted to purchase the land for an LNG liquefaction plant.<\/p>\n
A public hearing held Tuesday night allowed concerned residents to voice their concerns over having the LNG plant less than a mile from hundreds of homes. The port does not currently use the land.<\/p>\n
Several of the cruise lines that call Port Canaveral home use LNG, but they get refueled in ship-to-ship transfers. Most of the rockets that currently launch from Cape Canaveral don\u2019t use LNG, but that is changing with Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn, SpaceX\u2019s Starship and other new rockets switching to propellants that use an LNG and methane mix.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Micah Loyd, who thanked the public for coming out, made a motion at the monthly port authority meeting the following day declaring the area as \u201ca strategic port property and should not be sold.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several members of the public sporting yellow T-shirts with the words \u201cSave Merritt Island, No LNG Plant\u201d took turns thanking the commission for the decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to thank you for making the right decision,\u201d said Phil Stasik, a 32-year resident of north Merritt Island. \u201cIn this case, the choice of placing a rocket fuel factory within 350 feet of a community is insane. It should never have been proposed. It should have never been brought to you. You didn\u2019t ask for it, but it was put in your lap. You did your due diligence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the vote, vice chairman Fritz VanVolkenburgh detailed some of the reasons he would be voting no. He noted he had worked in the electric and natural gas industry for four years, and had visited a similar LNG facility in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do believe that Chesapeake and Berkshire Hathaway are solid outfits, based on my experience,\u201d he said. \u201cYou know, these are professionals. So I know, although there was some frustration, I recognize, definitely among the residents, particularly that some of the responses to inquiries were for lack of a better word, opaque.\u201d<\/p>\n
His decision to vote no, however, was more about the land\u2019s future potential value.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bottom line is that given the considerable size and location of the property, I\u2019m not ready to sell it,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll agree with the motion, not this year for in any way, whether it\u2019s LNG or any other purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this instance, it would have taken the property off the port\u2019s hands for at least 50 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to look through that kind of a lens,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The port is already packed with six cruise terminals at near full capacity, as well as cargo and space industry concerns and commercial interests.<\/p>\n
\u201cPort Canaveral has quickly become very crowded,\u201d VanVolkenburgh said. \u201cSteps to relieve these conditions through, for example, a space wharf to accommodate space-related vessels cannot be achieved for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted President Trump recently issued an executive order directing the development of a marine action plan that calls on ports to help rebuild the nation\u2019s maritime industrial base, which could mean sizable federal grants to Florida ports.<\/p>\n
With a new governor coming in next year with new priorities, he said the port would be smart to get feedback from them before deciding on any future sales such as this property.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome might argue that to reject the sale of the property, the port would be foregoing over $11 million of revenue, potentially,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, the monetary value of the port property will actually increase over time were we to ever sell it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He did note that the public\u2019s concerns could also affect property values.<\/p>\n
\u201cI took into account the fact that the property being so close to residents, there would be stressors that could impact the local community, whether these stressors were psychological, health-related or environmental,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Jerry Allender appreciated the public\u2019s input.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to thank all of you that have shown up today and in the past to express your opinion, your thoughts, your ideas,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is important to us in making decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Port Canaveral commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to not sell land to a company that wants to build a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[55034,1767,96182,28,30,29,45515,11968,96185,48639,2973,96183,96184],"class_list":{"0":"post-209851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-berkshire-hathaway","9":"tag-cape-canaveral","10":"tag-chesapeake-utilities","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-headlines","13":"tag-florida-news","14":"tag-liquified-natural-gas","15":"tag-merritt-island","16":"tag-natural-gas-industry","17":"tag-port-authority","18":"tag-port-canaveral","19":"tag-port-property","20":"tag-space-industry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}