State hires firm to study LNG plant alternatives - Newsday.com: "New York State has hired a private consultant to study alternatives in the Atlantic Ocean to Broadwater Energy's proposed location in Long Island Sound for its liquid natural gas terminal, state officials said Friday.
The state Energy Research Development Authority said it has contracted with the Battelle Memorial Institute of Columbus, Ohio, for $111,000 to study not just alternative sites but alternative technologies.
'Alternative locations and technologies in the Atlantic Ocean south of Long Island have not been fully explored and developed,' the state agency said in the contract with Battelle.
The energy agency retained Battelle on behalf of the state Department of State, which is considering whether to issue Broadwater a permit to operate the 1,200-foot-long regassification terminal midway between the Suffolk County and Connecticut shorelines. A spokesman for the state department said that considering alternative sites is routine in such proceedings.
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