Clean Ocean Action recently submitted comments on the US
Coast Guard’s (USCG) and Maritime Administration’s (MARAD) proposed revisions
to the Deep Water Port Act (DWPA). The DWPA controls the permitting,
construction, and operation of deepwater port facilities in the United States,
and is jointly administered by USCG and MARAD. The Deepwater Port Act has been
modified over the years to account for the advent of Liquid Natural Gas
technology, as well as the newly available supply of domestic natural gas as
unconventional reserves are tapped using hydraulic fracturing.
Clean Ocean Action has opposed the industrialization of our
coastal areas for the last thirty years, and believes that Liquid Natural Gas
facilities represent the destruction of coastal ecosystems, sources of
unavoidable pollution problems and environmental impacts to marine areas, and a
continued reliance on fossil fuels, even in the face of an ever growing climate
threat. Furthermore, as the DWPA recently was amended to allow for the export
of natural gas to foreign countries, these facilities represent a cog in the
domestic fracking machine that has polluted the water and air quality from the
Marcellus Shale formation underlying western PA and NY, to the vast fracking
fields of Oklahoma, North Dakota, and other western states.
Because of these principles, Clean Ocean Action voiced its’
many concerns over the revisions to the DWPA that would make it easier for
corporations to skate through the permitting and environmental analysis
processes. Our comments also focused on safety concerns in the planning and
operation of these facilities, more general domestic energy concerns, Coastal
States’ role in the permitting of deep water port facilities that have the
potential to destroy their environmental and economic resources, and the open
ended “clock stoppage” provisions that allow for an incomplete application to
be put on hold so that these corporations can provide the necessary information
for the federal and state agencies, as well as the public, to make accurate and
informed decisions. This last issue has been illustrated through the prolonged
fight over “Port Ambrose”, a proposed liquid natural gas facility off the coast
of NY and NJ. This project has been put on hold twice now through the clock
stoppage provision of the DWPA, most recently since March. The DWPA will
continue to allow for, and even encourage these “zombie projects”, that exist
in a perpetual state of limbo until they can be reanimated and continue to
threaten the livelihoods of those who rely on intact marine environments as
well as the thousands more who are unfortunate enough to live above a natural
gas reserve.
In short, these revised rules are representative for how the
federal permitting process for LNG terminals has gone; applicants provide
incomplete and sometimes inaccurate information and, like children being led by
the hand across a busy street, are walked through this process by USCG and
MARAD. COA will continue to fight against any proposed LNG terminals along the
coast of New York and New Jersey.
