NYS 2014 Draft Energy Plan points to a diminishing need for LNG imports
and ignores Port Ambrose altogether
On January 7, 2014, the New York State Energy
Planning Board released its Draft 2014 New York State Energy Plan for public
comment. The Draft Plan, which runs to over 600 pages, is a comprehensive
assessment of every aspect of New York’s energy matrix, including supply,
demand, and infrastructure needs for the next twenty years. While the
Plan suggests that natural gas will play an important role in the state’s
energy future, it sees no role for imported liquefied natural gas (LNG); and
although other infrastructure projects are considered in detail, it doesn’t
even mention Port Ambrose, the proposed Deepwater Port that would be
constructed off Long Island and import LNG into the metropolitan area.
In its few remarks on the subject, the Plan notes that the need
for LNG imports has diminished and that they now (in 2012)
account for “less than 1 percent of total U.S. natural gas.” The Plan goes on
to warn that natural gas markets are shifting to exporting LNG – which
could “cause price volatility in the future” and have a disruptive impact on New York energy costs.
So where does this leave Port Ambrose? “This is further evidence,
if any were needed, that there isn’t any demonstrable need for LNG imports for
Port Ambrose,” noted Sean Dixon, Coastal Policy Attorney with Clean Ocean
Action; “in aiming for affordable energy, resiliency, and market-based
solutions, LNG facilities are clearly inconsistent with NYS’s Energy Future.”
“New York State must reject the false promise of carbon based
fuels as a bridge to a sustainable future and stand as a leader in creating a
new energy economy based on renewable resources,” said Jeremy Samuelson,
Executive Director of Concerned Citizens of Montauk. “Our energy future
will reflect exactly what we incentivize. Economic growth, environment
protection and greater national security are the inevitable by-products an
aggressive transition to renewable energy.”
“New York State’s Energy Plan offers further evidence that Port
Ambrose is not viable as an LNG import facility,” said Bruce Ferguson of
Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy. “In all likelihood, if this
project goes forward it will be used to export shale gas and that will
inevitably lead to more fracking in the Northeast, and that’s something none of
us want to see.”
A State Energy Plan is required under state law and is open for a
60-day public comment period. As noted in the Board presentation and
press release announcements on the readiness of the Draft Plan, there will also
be six public hearings (in Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and
Long Island).
In June 2013, Liberty LNG’s proposed Port Ambrose LNG import
facility application became active, triggering a year-long review process under
the federal Deepwater Port Act. Liberty LNG proposes building a port
about 25 miles off of Jones Beach, NY, and a 20-mile pipeline which would
connect with the existing offshore Williams-Transco pipeline just 2 miles off
the coast of Atlantic Beach, NY. Liberty LNG purports to be planning to
use the facility strictly to import natural gas from the Gulf of Mexico and
foreign nations. Under federal law passed in December 2012, the license
for this port could be amended to allow for natural gas exports.
The groups quoted above, along with an anti-Liberty LNG coalition
of organizations from across the nation, continue to call on Governors Christie
and Cuomo to exercise their statutory right to veto this proposal. Such a
veto, under the federal Deepwater Port Act, can be transmitted to the reviewing
agencies (the Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration), at any time.
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