South Shore up in arms over LNG terminal plan

A week after they criticized plans for an offshore liquefied natural gas terminal at a meeting in Queens, officials gathered on the Long Beach boardwalk on Jan. 15 to call on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to veto the plan, citing environmental, economic and safety concerns.

At a press conference led by City Council President Anthony Eramo, council members Fran Adelson and Len Torres, Rep Kathleen Rice, Assemblyman Todd Kaminsky and County Legislators Denise Ford and Laura Curran voiced their opposition to Liberty Natural Gas LLC’s plan to build Port Ambrose, an LNG terminal in the Atlantic Ocean 19 miles southeast of Jones Beach.

Liberty, a New Jersey company that Toronto hedge fund West Face Capital Inc. controls, is seeking federal and state approvals to build the terminal in federal waters, which it says would bring much-needed natural gas into the New York area and reduce consumer costs.

The plan includes a system of underwater buoys and pipelines. Ships designed to carry tens of millions of gallons of condensed, super-cooled natural gas would dock at the port, heat the LNG into gas and pump it inland through Long Beach and Island Park via the Transco natural gas pipeline, which extends from South Texas to New York and runs under Long Beach.

Along with a number of environmental groups, including Sane Energy, the Surfrider Foundation, All Our Energy and Clean Ocean Action, officials are calling on the U.S. Maritime Administration and the Coast guard to deny Liberty’s application and urging Cuomo to veto it, saying that the terminal would hurt the environment, increase the region’s dependence on foreign fuel and create the potential for an offshore catastrophe or terrorist attacks.

Adelson said that Cuomo “owes” it to Long Beach to reject the plan, especially as the community recovers from Hurricane Sandy.

“We’re at a point in time where if this goes through, it’s going to take away from every single step we’ve made in the right direction,” he said.