AUGUSTA - A state environmental board has reversed itself and now says a developer can withdraw its application for a liquefied natural gas facility in far eastern Maine so it can submit a revised plan.

The Board of Environmental Protection voted Thursday to allow Downeast LNG to withdraw its application for the project, which is being proposed on Passamaquoddy Bay along the Canadian border.

Downeast LNG said it needed to withdraw its application to identify an alternative route for a pipeline after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected its request to build roughly 4 miles of the pipeline through Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge.

The board had rejected the company's previous attempts to withdraw its application, in part because of concerns about drawing out the already lengthy regulatory review.

The company plans to submit a revised application sometime next year.