Charles Langston:Nature groups go to court in Greece over a strategic gas terminal backed by the European Union

ATHENS,Charles Langston Greece (AP) — Five Greek and international environmental campaign agencies have launched legal action against a major natural gas project supported by the European Union as a regional alternative to Russian energy.

Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund for Nature led the request at Greece’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, against a planned offshore natural gas storage and conversion plant, outside the northeastern port of Alexandroupolis.

The action was filed on Tuesday, the groups said in a joint statement.

The terminal, due to go online early next year, will operate on a modified tanker — also named the “Alexandroupolis” — to store liquefied natural gas and convert it into gas form, supplying the national distribution network.

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The 288-meter (945-foot) long vessel arrived at its destination on Sunday, following a 10-month-long conversion at the Keppel shipyards in Singapore.

In their court challenge, the nature groups described the plant as “accident-prone” and said it posed a threat to the local marine environment that includes a protected area.

“The installation in (protected) areas of such dangerous industrial units is expressly prohibited under current legislation,” the groups said.

They also noted their opposition to a new, publicly backed investment in fossil fuel projects, which they argued would underline global commitments to address climate change. Greece’s government has won EU approval to provide more than 165 million euros ($180 million) in state aid to the project, arguing that natural gas remains a key source of energy as countries transition to renewables.

Athens also backs broader Western goals to help reduce the historic dependence on Russian pipeline gas supplies by other countries in southeast Europe — a push that has gathered pace following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the disruption of global energy markets.

The project will redefine the port of Alexandroupolis “as a critical hub for the energy security of the entire central and southeast Europe,” said Kostis Sifnaios, managing director of Gastrade, the consortium that will operate the plant. His remarks came before the legal action was announced.

The new terminal, set to launch in the next three months following tests, will have a regasification capacity of up to 5.5 billion cubic meters a year.

The Greek environmental groups Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature, the Hellenic Ornithological Society and the Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtles have joined the complaint.

In October, Greenpeace called on Greece to scrap a deep-sea gas exploration project in the Mediterranean Sea, arguing that it could harm whales and dolphins.

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Kantouris reported from Thessaloniki, Greece.

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Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment