Port Dolphin gets pipeline OK

Port Dolphin has acquired certification to build its 42-mile-long pipeline from Port Manatee to the future site of its liquefied natural gas port 28 miles off Anna Maria Island in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued a certificate of public necessity and convenience to build and operate the pipeline, the Norwegian-based shipping company announced Monday. More...

Port Dolphin sails toward license

ANNA MARIA – Port Dolphin may obtain the license to build its liquefied natural gas port 28 miles off Anna Maria Island by February, according to company spokesman Wayne Hopkins.

The U.S. Maritime Administration has released the particulars of its decision to approve the license for the submersible port, where liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers will dock, convert the LNG to vapor and offload it into a new, 42-mile-long underwater pipeline that will come ashore at Port Manatee for shipment to energy suppliers. More...

Port Dolphin clears major hurdle

ANNA MARIA – The U.S. Maritime Administration signed a document on Monday that clears the decks for a license to be issued for Port Dolphin’s liquefied natural gas port, planned 28 miles off Anna Maria.

Port Dolphin officials attended the signing ceremony in Washington, D.C. and have organized a reception at the Bradenton Yacht Club on Nov. 5. to celebrate the watershed event. More...

Governor approves Port Dolphin

ANNA MARIA – With the Sept. 11 approval of Gov. Charlie Crist, Port Dolphin is one step away from final approval of its liquefied natural gas port, proposed 28 miles off Anna Maria Island in the Gulf of Mexico.

Crist approved the port subject to 13 conditions required by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. An executed agreement between Port Dolphin and the two agencies is required by Friday, Sept. 18, to document the conditions. More...

Errors found in report on pipeline

ANNA MARIA – Several mistakes were made in a key environmental impact report on Port Dolphin, including overestimating the amount of available beach renourishment sand off Anna Maria Island.

A 12-page correction of the U.S. Coast Guard’s two-volume Environmental Impact Statement on the deepwater port project lists 10 errors - including some previously raised by Longboat Key officials - that could impact the project’s imminent approval. More...

Port Dolphin comments due

HOLMES BEACH – With the exception of Commissioner David Zaccagnino, commissioners last week expressed approval of the city’s 2009-10 proposed budget.

The budget of $7.8 million is a decrease of $262, 233 from the 2008-09 budget of $8.1 million. The proposed millage rate is 1.7549, which is the rolled-back rate, and an increase from last year’s millage of 1.5989. More...

Port Dolphin supporters, critics come forth

PALMETTO – A panel of decision makers heard from supporters and critics of the proposed Port Dolphin natural gas port and pipeline last week at the Manatee Convention Center.

The hearing was part of Port Dolphin’s application process for a license to build a liquid natural gas port 28 miles off Anna Maria Island that would connect to Port Manatee with a 42-mile-long underwater pipeline. More...

Longboat disputes environmental report

LONGBOAT KEY – A key environmental assessment of Port Dolphin’s proposed natural gas port and pipeline contains "serious errors" about the project’s impact on submerged beach renourishment sand resources, according to Longboat Key officials.

The town disputes the U.S. Coast Guard’s Final Environmental Impact Statement on Port Dolphin’s proposed pipeline route, which would make sand off limits that could otherwise be used for beach renourishment on Longboat Key and Anna Maria Island. More...

Port Dolphin hearing July 28

A public hearing on the proposed Port Dolphin natural gas port and pipeline is scheduled for Tuesday, July 28, at the Manatee Convention Center in Palmetto.

The hearing, from 5 to 7 p.m., will be preceded by an informational open house from 3 to 4:30 p.m. about the project, a submersible liquid natural gas port 28 miles off Anna Maria Island that would connect to Port Manatee with a 42-mile-long underwater pipeline. More...

Pipeline opponent gets support

LONGBOAT KEY – Longboat Key is garnering support from surrounding municipal governments in its ongoing opposition to Port Dolphin’s proposed floating natural gas port.

Town commissioners are set to decide in September whether to spend $245,000 to continue to oppose Port Dolphin’s proposed pipeline off Anna Maria Island. More...

Proposed pipeline concerns revisited

Commercial fishermen banned from 26 square miles of Gulf waters for nearly a year. Sea turtles suffocated in machinery, and manatees and dolphins killed in vessel strikes. Air, water, noise and visual pollution increased.

These are among the many concerns raised by the U.S. Maritime Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard in their final environmental assessment of the proposed Port Dolphin natural gas port and pipeline, released Friday. More...

Port Dolphin, Longboat to meet

BRADENTON – After months of finger pointing, officials from Port Dolphin and Longboat Key agreed last week to meet with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on where to install a proposed underwater natural gas pipeline.

Port Dolphin has applied for a U.S. Coast Guard permit to build a floating liquid natural gas port 28 miles off Anna Maria Island, where tankers would convert liquefied natural gas into vaporized natural gas and pump it to Port Manatee to supply electric companies. More...

City responds to Port Dolphin plans

BRADENTON BEACH – Reacting to a request for support from Longboat Key, the city will send a letter to Congressman Vern Buchanan protesting Port Dolphin’s proposed pipeline route that would threaten a potential sand source for renourishment.

Faced with a long report on the project, the city commissioners voted last Thursday, June 4, to send a non-specific letter to Congressman Vern Buchannan asking him to look into the situation. More...

Island cities support Longboat pipeline position

Holmes Beach and Anna Maria commissioners agreed to support a request by Longboat Key officials to move the location of the Port Dolphin pipeline so it doesn’t affect the town’s possible sand source for renourishment projects.

"Longboat Key does not oppose the project, but wants to protect its sand sources," Longboat Key Town Manager Bruce St. Denis explained to Holmes Beach commissioners at their May 26 meeting. More...

Lines drawn in underwater sand

The average beachgoer who sets up a chair and an umbrella on Anna Maria Island or Longboat Key has no idea what lies beneath.

Clean, white sand doesn’t just get washed up onto the beach by Mother Nature. It takes barges, dredges, pipes, bulldozers, permits, and money – lots of money. More...

LBK seeks help with pipeline

BRADENTON BEACH – The town manager of Longboat Key took the trip across the bridge to ask this city’s commissioners for help in rerouting a natural gas pipeline in the waters north of Anna Maria Island.

Bruce St. Denis asked city commissioners to write a letter to the U.S. Coast Guard and Florida Congressman Vern Buchannan supporting Longboat’s contention that the Port Dolphin gas pipeline would cut into the area where the best sand for renourishment is located. More...

Port Dolphin offers new study supporting pipeline route

LONGBOAT KEY – Port Dolphin officials have offered to prepare an engineering study that would demonstrate why they cannot build their submerged natural gas pipeline alongside Gulfstream Natural Gas System’s pipeline.

The Houston-based company has offered to allow Manatee County and Longboat Key officials to choose an independent consultant to prepare the study, which the company will pay for, Assistant Manatee County Attorney Sarah Schenk told officials on Thursday at a joint meeting of the two governments. More...

Port Dolphin reps a no show

PALMETTO – Port Dolphin officials chose not to appear before the Council of Governments last week to answer questions about its project off Anna Maria Island.

The proposed Port Dolphin Energy Liquefied Natural Gas Deepwater Port would consist of two submersible mooring buoys about three miles apart and 100 feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico, 28 miles west of the Island. Tankers would convert their cargoes of liquid natural gas into vaporized natural gas at the floating port, then pump the gas into a proposed 42-mile-long pipeline, which would come ashore at Port Manatee to supply electric companies. More...

Pipeline would plow more sea floor

ANNA MARIA – Port Dolphin’s newly proposed natural gas pipeline route would plow through more of the Gulf of Mexico’s sea floor off Anna Maria Island than its previously planned route, according to the company’s revised deepwater port license application. More...

Pipeline route draws protests

HOLMES BEACH – What exactly did Port Dolphin find while surveying 12,400 acres at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico off Anna Maria Island last year?

The question was asked several times in several ways by officials of the town of Longboat Key at a Barrier Island Elected Officials meeting last Wednesday. More...

Pipeline path change proposed

ANNA MARIA – In response to concerns from governmental agencies, environmental groups and others, Port Dolphin has rerouted its proposed underwater natural gas pipeline away from the north end of Anna Maria Island.

The pipeline was slated to be built through underwater sand reserves off Bean Point, disturbing fine, white sand used for beach renourishment on Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key in both a permitted sand reserve area and a potential new sand source. More...

New pipeline route proposed

PORT MANATEE – Manatee County commissioners are delighted with Port Dolphin’s unexpected offer to relocate its proposed natural gas pipeline to avoid an underwater beach renourishment sand reserve.

But the commissioners, who also serve as members of the Port Authority for Port Manatee, where the pipeline would come ashore, told the natural gas shipping company that they expect even more.

"We’ve heard the community loud and clear," Port Dolphin spokesman Harry Costello said, apologizing for what he called "miscommunication" over where the pipeline would be built. More...

Another coast, a different approach

A floating liquefied natural gas port similar to the Port Dolphin project proposed off Anna Maria Island is in the works on Florida’s East Coast, where Port Calypso is responding to community concerns with its pocketbook.

Port Calypso is a project of Houston-based Suez Energy North America, an affiliate of the Paris-based company that built the Suez Canal 140 years ago. More...

Town hires law firm to fight pipe route

Longboat Key has hired a Washington D.C. law firm to research legal inadequacies of the Port Dolphin liquefied natural gas pipeline plan.

Patton Boggs LLP filed a 26-page document with the U.S. Coast Guard last week criticizing the agency’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) as "legally inadequate under the standards of the National Environmental Policy Act, the rules of the Council on Environmental Quality and the Department of Transportation’s regulations on siting and environmental review of facilities for which a license is sought under the Deepwater Port Act." More...

Local scientists critique Port Dolphin project

Two local scientists have written to the U.S. Coast Guard with concerns about Port Dolphin after reviewing its lead environmental study.

The study on the potential environmental impact of the proposed liquefied natural gas port and pipeline is "fundamentally flawed," according to Steve LeGore, an independent consultant with LeGore Environmental Associates Inc. in Holmes Beach. More...

Congress members oppose pipeline route

With the support of 14 members of Congress, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan has written the U.S. Dept. of Transportation to oppose Port Dolphin’s planned natural gas pipeline route off Anna Maria Island.

The agency is reviewing the proposed floating port, where tankers would convert liquefied natural gas to vapor 28 miles off the Island, then send it by pipeline to Port Manatee. More...

Comments pour in on pipeline

A trickle of comments has turned into a stream of environmental and economic concerns about the proposed Port Dolphin natural gas port and pipeline.

Increasing awareness of the project prompted public agencies and private citizens to file comments with the U.S. Coast Guard a few days before its June 2 public comment deadline. More...

Anna Maria opposes Port Dolphin pipeline

ANNA MARIA – Responding to concerns about eroding beaches and tourism revenue, Anna Maria commissioners are notifying other elected officials that the city opposes Port Dolphin’s pipeline plans.

Port Dolphin is a proposed floating port 28 miles from the north end of Anna Maria Island where liquefied natural gas would be converted to vapor, then shipped through a 42-mile-long pipeline to Port Manatee. More...

County to oppose pipeline plan

Manatee County commissioners plan to protest a natural gas pipeline slated to pass through the underwater area off Anna Maria where the county mines beach renourishment sand.

Houston-based Port Dolphin Energy LLC plans to build the floating Port Dolphin 28 miles offshore, where liquefied natural gas would be converted to gas in tankers and piped ashore to Port Manatee. More...

FWC weighs in on pipeline proposal

Port Dolphin’s plan to build a floating natural gas port and pipeline 28 miles off Anna Maria Island poses several environmental problems, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).

The port would host tankers that convert liquefied natural gas to vaporized gas and transport it through a 42-mile-long pipeline to a Gulfstream Natural Gas System pipeline onshore at Port Manatee. More...

Pipeline placement talks ongoing

PORT MANATEE – Representatives of Port Manatee and Port Dolphin are negotiating over the placement of a controversial proposed natural gas pipeline, according to Manatee County officials.

"They came to us with their project and we’re trying to meet their requirements as we did with Gulfstream," said Port Manatee Director Dave McDonald, referring to an existing natural gas pipeline running from Port Manatee to Mobile Bay, Ala.

McDonald met with Port Dolphin representatives last week to discuss the county’s concerns about the proposed project, Manatee County Port Authority Chairman Joe McClash announced Thursday at a port authority meeting. More...

Pipeline scuttles beach meeting

ANNA MARIA – The site plans for the first two buildings in the Pine Avenue restoration project have been unanimously approved by the planning and zoning board.

"This shows how the citizens and elected officials can work together to arrive at an outcome that is beneficial to everyone," said Michael Coleman, who originally conceived of the project, which is envisioned to ultimately contain small offices or retail businesses on the ground floor with residences on the second. More...

Report details project’s hazards

The U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Maritime Administration have identified several potential hazards of the proposed Port Dolphin Energy Liquefied Natural Gas Deepwater Port in its newly-released Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

Among the concerns are spills, explosions, increased water and air pollution and impacts on marine life, including fish, manatees, dolphins, whales and sea turtles.

Public comments will be accepted on the statement until June 2. A final version of the statement is due in mid-July, followed by a final public hearing later this summer. More...

Time and tide wait for no one

The clock is ticking.

Port Dolphin expects more than a dozen permits from nearly as many federal and state agencies to be secured by the end of 2009, spokesman German Castro said, with construction beginning in 2010 and operations starting in 2011. More...