They don't want the LNG project

From the Queens Courier:

A proposal to build a massive natural gas terminal, called Port Ambrose, just 17 miles off the southern shore of Long Island was met by angry opposition from hundreds of residents from Queens and surrounding counties last week during a public hearing near Kennedy Airport.

“Our families in southern Queens and Rockaway have been devastated by Superstorm Sandy and have seen first-hand what torturing our environment can do to us if we don’t take the proper precautions for the future,” Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder said. “Approving Port Ambrose and bringing dangerous liquefied natural gas to our communities is simply unacceptable.”

The facility, proposed by Liberty Natural Gas, would create a deep water terminal where liquefied natural gas would be imported by supertankers. The new site would receive the shipments, vaporize the gas, and deliver it through underwater pipelines to the coast with a capacity of about 400 million cubic feet of gas a day, according to a report in Capital New York.

Goldfeder, along with other elected officials voiced their concern about safety risks posed to residents on the coast by the presence of the deep-water gas port and the “highly combustible liquefied natural gas it would store.”

“The bottom line is that LNG is unsafe,” concluded Goldfeder. “It’s unsafe for the ocean, it’s unsafe for environment, and, quite frankly, it’s unsafe for the tens of thousands of families in southern Queens and Rockaway.”

LNG off Rockaway on hold due to Gulf oil leak

From the Daily News:

The Gulf oil spill is giving pause to energy companies with grand designs for the Atlantic coast.

A controversial plan to build a liquefied natural gas terminal on a man-made island 15 miles off the Rockaway Peninsula has been withdrawn due to the backlash from the BP oil spill in the Gulf, among other factors, company officials said.

The Atlantic Sea Island Group's decision to pull the plug on the plan is "temporary" and it plans to "reactivate operations in six months," a company official told the Daily News Tuesday.

The U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration on Friday accepted the withdrawal of the application to build the artificial island off the Atlantic coast.

In its June 29 letter to those agencies, the company also pointed to the retirement of CEO Howard Bovers and the "prevailing uncertainty" of the global economy as contributing factors to their request. Bovers retired on June 23 for health reasons, according to the letter.

Atlantic Sea Island Group planned to use the terminal to deliver up to 2 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, per day through an underwater pipeline connected to the mainland in Nassau County, planners said.

NJ governor's "no" helps Rockaway

From the Daily News:

Rockaway residents are "breathing a sigh of relief," officials said Tuesday, after a key gatekeeper vowed to veto proposals for liquefied natural gas terminals off the Atlantic coast.

But the companies that want to build the terminals aren't sailing away just yet.

"This community really has a fear of this project. It does not serve a purpose for us or for the city," said Jonathan Gaska, district manager of Community Board 14 in Far Rockaway.

He and other local officials hailed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's pledge last week to oppose LNG terminals near the shorelines of New Jersey and New York.

Christie, who along with Gov. Paterson, has veto power over such projects, said LNG terminals "are not the answer for New Jersey's needs."

"I remain unconvinced of the need and efficacy of these facilities, or their ability to lower prices," he said.

Christie's pledge renders such projects "dead on arrival," said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Queens and Brooklyn).

"Let's not waste our time - pull the plug now," Weiner said.

Pheffer's man lobbied for LNG project

From the Daily News:

THE LONGTIME boyfriend of a state lawmaker from Queens lobbied Albany last year on behalf of a company that plans to build a liquefied natural gas terminal off the Rockaways, raising eyebrows in her district.

Critics say this set up a potential conflict of interest for Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer (D-Rockaway Beach), even though she has been a vocal opponent of such projects.

Lobbyist Glenn Riddell describes Pheffer as being his "life partner" on the Web site for his Albany-based lobbying firm, the Riddell Group. BlueOcean Energy was a client of his between January 2008 and May 2009, he said.

"I disassociated myself with the project because I live on Rockaway Beach, and I live with Audrey Pheffer," Riddell told Queens News.

He said he told BlueOcean officials that if the company made a push to do business in New York, "I am going to have to respectfully decline" to represent them.

BlueOcean is one of the three firms planning to set up floating ocean terminals 30 miles from New York to receive and store shipments of liquefied natural gas - LNG.

The terminal, featuring a deck area the size of four football fields, will be fastened to the ocean floor by 16 steel mooring chains, according to the company's Web site.

Once stored on the terminal, the LNG will be reheated to restore it to a gas and then delivered to New Jersey or New York through an underwater pipeline to existing onshore pipelines.

Riddell said he was hired by BlueOcean to complete a "white paper," or feasibility report, of where along the Atlantic coast the terminal could be placed.

"Our whole responsibility in this project was to keep New York State, the governor's office and his energy people apprised of what was going on," said Riddell, who added he was paid $2,500 a month for his work with BlueOcean, owned by ExxonMobil.

A BlueOcean spokesman confirmed that Riddell worked for the firm as a contractor until last May.

NJ governor may kill LNG plan for Rockaway

From the Queens Courier:

Plans to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on a 60-acre man-made island off the Rockaway shore have run aground, with published reports saying that New Jersey Governor-elect Chris Christie will veto the project.

Safe Harbor Energy, the planned deepwater port island, was proposed to be about 13 miles south of Long Beach, and 19 miles east of Highlands, NJ. Geographically, it would appear to be directly off the Rockaway shore.

The planned island would have a harbor for two LNG tankers, each more than 1,000 feet long, storage tanks to hold more than 19 million cubic feet of gas and pump it to shore through two 36-inch diameter pipelines.

Christie, who defeated incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine in the November elections, has been on record as being against the project, viewing it as a threat to New Jersey’s coastal commercial and sporting economy, according to spokesperson Maria Comella. “The governor-elect’s position on LNGs has not changed,” she said.

The company proposing the facility, Atlantic Sea Island Group, initially tried to eliminate New Jersey from the process, but was overruled by Commissioner Sean Connaughton of the Federal Maritime Commission. New York Governor David Paterson has not revealed his views on the project.

New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) had already determined that the proposed port and sub-sea pipeline may result in significant adverse environmental impacts and that compliance with state law requires preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement.

Concern expressed at gas terminal hearing

From NY1:

The proposal to build a natural gas terminal off the coast of the Rockaways is not sitting well with some residents.

This is an important issue for all of us. I suggest you watch this report and read this one.