Finland Gives Nod To Pipeline
Bloomberg
MOSCOW — Gazprom-led Nord Stream’s proposed Baltic Sea gas pipeline poses no serious environmental threat to Finland and can move forward to the next step in the approval process, Finnish environmental authorities said. Finland “considers the performed environmental impact assessment to be sufficient in its fundamental aspects,” the Helsinki-based Uusimaa Regional Environment Centre said in a statement Thursday, adding additional studies of the fishing impact and how follow-up monitoring will be conducted are necessary. Nord Stream, a planned 1,200-kilometer natural-gas pipeline connecting Russia directly with Germany, will pass through Russian, Finnish, Swedish, Danish and German waters. The project has raised concern that construction could dislodge World War II munitions on the Baltic seabed and hurt the ecosystem. Thursday’s approval of the environmental report moves the Finnish permitting process forward, allowing the government to begin considering an application for the use of Finland’s Baltic Sea economic zone. The Western Finland Environmental Permit Authority will also consider permits for clearing naval mines from the pipeline’s route for building the actual construction. “This is an important step forward,” Sebastian Sass, Nord Stream’s permitting manager, said in an interview in Helsinki. “We are committed to providing further investigations if required.”
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