Judge: LNG lease is valid
A federal judge in Bangor last week dismissed a lawsuit filed by members of the Passamaquoddy Tribe against the Bureau of Indian Affairs over the lease of tribal land to an Oklahoma company that wants to build a liquefied natural gas terminal there.
We Take Care of Our Land -- Nulankeyutmonen Nkihtaqmikon in the Passamaquoddy language -- beginning in November 2005 filed three lawsuits in U.S. District Court in Bangor, claiming its members' viewpoints were not represented in May 2005 when the tribal council at Pleasant Point signed a partnership agreement with the LNG developer, Quoddy Bay LLC, according to the Bangor Daily News. The group wants to scrap the lease decision, which the Bureau of Indian Affairs approved, and reopen the matter and allow tribal members to vote on the LNG project, the paper said.
A lawyer for the Passamquoddy group said she would appeal U.S. District Court Judge John Woodcock's decision. If Woodcock's ruling withstands the appeal, the issue of the lease would be sent to the Interior Board of Indian Appeals, the paper said.
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