Committee Reports

April 2009

The Energy and Regulated Utilities Committee kicked off its April meeting with a presentation from Mary Usovicz. Mary serves as the director of external affairs at Repsol. She gave the committee an overview of Repsol North America and the Canaport project, a liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal and storage facility in Saint John, New Brunswick. Canaport LNG is expected to come online this year and will be the first land-based LNG constructed in more than 30 years to service the U.S. northeast market. The facility will have the capability of sending out approximately 1 bcf per day of natural gas or enough gas to heat more than 5 million homes.

Committee members asked a range of questions on the project schedule, potential impact of the economic slowdown and how climate change legislation could impact the facility.

Once Mary completed her presentation, Patti Carrier led the committee in a discussion on the Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Energy Board. Patti, facilities and environmental manager at New Hampshire Ball Bearing, serves as the BIA’s representative on the board. She reviewed the board’s activities to date and discussed the work still to be done. She also talked about the influx of funding for energy efficiency coming into the state from the federal stimulus bill, RGGI and other sources.

Finally, Michael Licata gave an overview of the May 5, BIA/DES Waste Management Seminar, which will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Center of New Hampshire in Manchester. For more information on the conference, click here.