The Vancouver Sun reports in its Wednesday edition that the rejection of a merger of a Hawaiian electric utility and a Florida company by Hawaii's regulator has scuttled a deal to export LNG from British Columbia. The Sun's Gordon Hoekstra writes that in May, Fortis announced it had signed an agreement to provide liquefied natural gas from B.C. to the Hawaiian Islands. It would have required another expansion to its Delta facility. However, Hawaiian Electric announced Tuesday that it had withdrawn the applications for a liquefied natural gas contract with Fortis Hawaii Energy Inc. and also their plans to upgrade one of their power plants to use natural gas. That follows an announcement that the Hawaiian Electric subsidiaries and Florida-based NextEra Energy had terminated their merger agreement following rejection of the merger by the Hawaiian Public Utilities Commission over concerns that it was a risk to ratepayers. "We are disappointed. But you always go in with your eyes open," said Fortis vice-president Doug Stout. It's not clear what effect the collapse of the Fortis deal will have on a proposed $175-million Wespac terminal on the Fraser River, where ships were meant to load LNG for export overseas.