Time Out on LNG

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY SIX ORGANIZATIONS 
ASK FORMORE TIME TO ASSESS PROPOSED LNG PORT

Today, one hundred and thirty six environmental and public advocacy groups sent a letter to the Maritime Administration asking that the public be given more time to consider and comment on a propose liquefied natural gas (LNG) port that would be constructed in the waters off Long Island and the Jersey Shore. After the application was announced on June 14, the project sponsor subsequently released fifteen hundred pages of a four thousand plus page application that federal agencies have found to be still incomplete in more than one hundred and fifty specific areas. Despite the length, technical complexity, and incomplete nature of the material, the public is required to read, analyze and meaningfully comment on the application by July 23.

Sean Dixon, Coastal Policy Attorney at Clean Ocean Action said, “This LNG port will adversely impact the economies and ecologies depended upon by millions of Americans and the public deserves the opportunity to give it careful consideration.”  Dixon noted that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie vetoed this proposal in 2011 (and reaffirmed it in 2012) because, according to the Governor’s original veto (attached to this press release), it “ would present unacceptable and substantial risks to the State’s residents, natural resources, economy and security… stifle investment in renewable energy technologies by increasing our reliance on foreign sources… [and] create a heightened risk in a densely developed region, including potential accidents or sabotage disrupting commerce in the Port of New York and New Jersey.” Dixon notes that “this application is for the same port that was wrong for the people and economies of New York and New Jersey last year, and the year before that; Liberty may be back, but nothing has changed.”

Bruce Ferguson of Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy is concerned that construction of an LNG terminal could lead to increased shale gas extraction, or “fracking”. “I’m well aware that the sponsor says that the proposed port will be used to import LNG from abroad, but there is nothing in the law that can prevent the sponsor, or a future owner of the port, from using it to ship fracked shale gas to Europe and Asia.” Ferguson also noted that the United States will soon become a net exporter of natural gas and that existing import facilities are being revamped to handle exports.

The Maritime Administration has scheduled just two public hearings on the proposal, the minimum allowed by law:

New York State

Tuesday, July 9

Open House: 4:30pm - 5:30pm

Hearing: 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Allegria Hotel

80 West Broadway, Long Beach, NY

(516) 889-1300

New Jersey

Wednesday, July 10

Open House: 4:30pm - 5:30pm

Hearing: 6:00pm - 8:00pm

NJ Convention and Exposition Center

97 Sunfield Avenue, Edison, NJ

(732) 417-1400

Clean Ocean Action is also hosting a “Citizens” Hearing – open to all – the next day, on July 11:

Citizens’ Hearing

Thursday, July 11

Rally Against LNG: 4:30pm - 5:30pm

Hearing: 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Sea Bright, NJ,  Public Beach

(732) 872-011

“Residents of the entire region have grave concerns over this proposed LNG port that could easily be converted to facilitate gas exports instead of imports. This likely conversion would increase demand throughout the Northeast for dangerous pipelines and fracking, and disrupt families' lives for hundreds of miles,” said Emily Wurth, Water Program Director at Food & Water Watch. “Residents of many states deserve numerous public hearings to voice their concerns about this ill-advised plan.”

“We are affirming the request for additional public hearings and an extension for the public comment period for the ‘Port Ambrose’ project in the interest of the general public’s health, safety and the rights of the public to comment on this application; this port is a threat to the ocean, marine life, and ecosystems that sustain us all,” said Suzanne Golas, csjp, Director of WATERSPIRIT.  “As the Maritime Administration is charged with ‘meeting the country’s maritime commercial mobility while supporting the national security and protecting the environment,’ we find this request for additional public hearings and an extension for the public comment period clearly within the scope of the Maritime Administration’s responsibility to ensure comprehensive and adequate input from the general public while reviewing this application.”

The 130 organizations that signed on to a letter to the Maritime Administration asking that the public be given more time to consider and comment on a propose liquefied natural gas (LNG) port that would be constructed in the waters off Long Island and the Jersey Shore are as follows:

Matt Smith	350NJ
Lyna Hinkel	350NYC
Ryan Talbott	Allegheny Defense Project
Christopher Huch	Alliance for a Living Ocean (ALO)
Tim Dillingham	American Littoral Society
Sandy Batty	ANJEC
Stephen A. Sanders	Appalachian Citizens' Law Center, Inc.
Don Torino	Bergen County Audubon Society
Karen Feridun	Berks Gas Truth
Kevin Kamps	Beyond Nuclear
Tracy Sides PhD, MPH	Bravely Be
Charlotte Phillips, M.D.	Brooklyn For Peace
Kathy Maher	Bus for Progress
Daniel Morrissey	Capital District Against Fracking
Wes Gillingham	Catskill Mountainkeeper
Bruce Ferguson	Catskills Citizens for Safe Energy
Rose Braz	Center for Biological Diversity
Kenneth Fogarty	Chenango Community Action for Renewable Energy
Allen Johnson	Christian for the Mountains
John Jongen	Citizens' Alliance for a Pristine Perinton (CAPP)
Barbara Warren	Citizens' Environmental Coalition
Joe Levine	Citizens for Water
Nathan Kipnis	Citizens' Greener Evanston
Isaac Silberman-Gorn	City of Binghamton Residents Against Hydrofracking
Cindy Zipf	Clean Ocean Action
Harriet Shugarman	ClimateMama
Vernon Haltom	Coal River Mountain Watch
Martha Cameron	Coalition Against the Rockaway Pipeline
Arthur H. Kopelman, Ph. D.	Coastal Research and Education Society of Long Island
David F. Slottje	Community Enviornmental Defense
Suzy Winkler	Concerned Burlington Neighbors
Jeremy Samuelson	Concerned Citizens of Montauk
Cheryl Cary	Concerned Residents of Madison County
Mina Takahashi	Concerned Residents of Oxford
Edie Ehlert	Crawford Stewardship Project
Fay Muir	Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition
B. Arrindell	Damascus Citizens for Sustainability
Maya K. van Rossum	Delaware Riverkeeper Network
Deborah Goldberg	Earthjustice Northeast Office
Jennifer Krill	Earthworks
Ken Gale	Eco-Logic, WBAI-FM
Robert Spiegel	Edison Wetlands Association
Doug Couchon	Elmirans and Friends Against Fracking
Doug O'Malley	Environment New Jersey
Eric Whalen	Environment New York
Katherine Nadeau	Environmental Advocates of New York
Heather White	Environmental Working Group
Ted Glick	Essex/Passaic Green Party
John Malizia	Fishermen's Conservation Association
Jimmy Lovgren	Fishermens Dock Co-Op
Jim Walsh	Food & Water Watch
Marc W. McCord	FracDallas
Julia Walsh	Frack Action
Cynthia Carestio	Frack Free Genesee
Shane Davis	Fractivist.com
Albert Crudo	Friends of Sustainable Sidney
Sheila Cohen	Gas Drilling Awareness for Cortland County
Josh Fox	Gasland & Gasland Part II
Alan Muller	Green Delaware
Captain Bill Sheehan	Hackensack Riverkeeper
Bo Lipari	Hector Clean Waters
Alma Hasse	Idaho Concerned Area Residents for the Environment
Dan Mundy	Jamaica bay Ecowatchers
Suzanne Tallichet	Kentuckians for the Commonweath
Marcia Halligan	Kickapoo Peace Circle
Rev. Nancy Kasper	Lakeshore Environmental Action
Sally Robinson	League of Women Voters of NY
Toni Zimmer	League of Women Voters of NJ
Shelley DePaul	Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania
Fred Harding	Maiden Rock Concerned Citizens
Margo Pellegrino	Miami2Maine
Capt. Rick Etzel	Montauk Boatman, Inc. (MBI)
David Denenberg	Nassau County
Ida Sanoff	Natural Resources Protective Association (NRPA)
Judy Triechel	Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force
Glenn A. Arthur	New Jersey Council of Diving Clubs (NJCDC)
David Pringle	New Jersey Environmental Federation
JK Canepa	New York Climate Action Group
Cathleen Breen	New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG)
David Braun	New Yorkers Against Fracking
Julia Somers	NJ Highlands Coalition
Claudia Borecky	North and Central Merrick Civic Association
Deborah A. Mans	NY/NJ Baykeeper
Donna Stein	NYC Friends of Clearwater
Buck Moorhead	NYH20
Patrick Robbins & Kim Fraczek	Occupy the Pipeline
Janet Keating	Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition
Peter Bergel	Oregon PeaceWorks
Marianne Waldow	OWS Environmental Solidarity
Lawrence Hamm	People's Organization For Progress
Kevin F. Lind	Powder River Basin Resource Council
Randy Hurst	Protect Orange County
Iris Marie Bloom	Protecting Our Waters
Bill Schultz	Raritan RIVERKEEPER
Gordian Raacke	Renewable Energy Long Island
Len Bjorkman	Residents Against Fracking Tioga (RAFT)
Bill Podulka	Residents Opposing Unsafe Shale-Gas Extraction (ROUSE)
Robert Cross	Responsible Drilling Alliance (RDA)
Kate Hudson	Riverkeeper, Inc.
Anna Sears & Nedra Harvey	Rochesterians Concerned About Unsafe Shale-gas Extraction (R-CAUSE)
Carol Barnett & Jordan Kleiman	Rush Citizens Concerned about Hydrofracking
Karen London	SACRED (Sullivan Area Citizens for Responsible Energy Development)
Clare Donohue	Sane Energy Project
Gail Musante	Sanford-Oquaga Area Concerned Citizens (S-OACC)
Britta Wenzel	Save Barnegat Bay
Gerri Wiley	Save the Southern Tier
Sara Hess	Shaleshock
Alice Slater	Shut Down Indian Point Now
Roger Downs	Sierra Club - Atlantic Chapter
Ann I. Aurelio	Sierra Club of Long Island
Jeff Tittel	Sierra Club of New Jersey
Linda Eckstein	Social Action Committee of UUC Glens Falls
Tabitha Tripp	Southern Illinoisans Against Fracturuing our Environment
John Malizia	Staten Island Tuna Club
Pramilla Malick	Stop the Minisink Compressor Station
Mark Pezzati	Stop the Pipeline (STP)
Michael Chojnicki	Sullivan Alliance for Sustainable Development (SASD)
Kathy Russell	SUNY Cortland CGIS Environmentqal Justice Committee
Richie Lee	Surfers' Environmental Alliance
Larry Moriarty	Surfrider Foundation, Central Long Island Chapter
Allison Candelmo	Surfrider Foundation, Jersey Shore Chapter
Nick Lynn	Surfrider Foundation, NYC Chapter
Krissy Halkes	Surfrider Foundation, South Jersey Chapter
Pam Solo	The Civil Society Institute
Bob DeLuca	The Group for the East End
Margaret Wood	The Lakeland Unitarian Universalist
Rachel Davis	The Mothers Project for Sustainable Energy, NJ
Sandra L. Frankel	Town of Brighton
Ling Tsou	United for Action
Suzanne Golas, csjp	WATERSPIRIT
Asha Canalos	We the People Matter
Nada Khader	WESPAC Foundation, Inc.
Eric Justian	West Michigan Jobs Group
Susan Van Dolson	Westchester for Change
Verle Reinicke	Western Organization of  Resource Councils
Jim Gurley	Winona Area Citizens Concerned about Silica Mining (CASM)