Oklahoma company says opponents of LNG are 'baseless'

PERRY, Maine (AP) _ The Oklahoma company that wants to build a liquefied natural gas terminal on Passamaquoddy Indian land in eastern Maine says opponents are making ``baseless'' accusations against

Saturday, March 26th 2005, 12:18 pm

By: News On 6

PERRY, Maine (AP) _ The Oklahoma company that wants to build a liquefied natural gas terminal on Passamaquoddy Indian land in eastern Maine says opponents are making ``baseless'' accusations against the company.

Quoddy Bay LLC wants to build a 400 million dollar LNG terminal, and has offered the town of Perry one million dollars a year as part of its proposal.

LNG opponents this week asked the Washington County district attorney to investigate whether the developer's million-dollar offer violates Maine's bribery law.

Don Smith, the president of Quoddy Bay LLC, says the accusations are ``absurd,'' and that he welcomes an investigation by the DA or the state attorney general.

He says the accusations are a desperate attempt to sway the outcome of the election next week when Perry residents decide whether to allow the LNG terminal to be built.