Press Releases

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Citizens Rally Against Big Oil and Blast NY & CT Officials for Threatening the Ocean

For Immediate Release: April 22, 2008

CONTACTS: Kari Martin or Cindy Zipf, 732-872-0111

Action Campaign Launched to Stop Offshore Liquefied Natural Gas Ports

Sea Bright, NJ – Conservation, environmental, recreational and commercial fishing, diving, religious, and surfing groups and concerned citizens rallied on the beach in opposition to two industrial port facilities for liquefied natural gas (LNG) proposed off the coasts of New Jersey and New York.  Wielding surfboards, kayaks, fishing poles, and other gear, 75 citizens expressed their outrage to the proposed projects that would harm the marine environment and threaten their coastal way of life.  The proposed offshore facilities are for a foreign fossil fuel, and threaten prime fishing grounds, navigation, underwater habitat, and endangered, threatened, and protected species.

Also, citizens rallied in response to recent statements by high-ranking officials from New York and Connecticut who promoted sites off New Jersey for LNG projects.  Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell, Connecticut Attorney Richard Blumenthal, and NY Secretary of State Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez rejected an LNG facility proposed for Long Island Sound earlier this month, and suggested sites off the Jersey shore and south shore of Long Island as alternative sites.

“For twenty years we have worked hard to turn our ocean from Ocean Dumping Capitol of the World to the Clean Ocean Zone.  We are enjoying the benefits and our coastal economy is thriving.  Now Big Oil has set its greedy eyes on our ocean and threatens our quality of life.  To make matters worse, leaders in CT and NY have acted to save their waterways from similar threats only to put our waters at risk.  This is an appalling and dirty deal; it is an outrage.  If it’s bad for the Sound, it’s bad for the Clean Ocean Zone,” said Cindy Zipf, Executive Director, Clean Ocean Action (COA).

“For two decades, New Jersey has succeeded in cleaning up our beaches by opposing efforts to build facilities like liquefied natural gas terminals off our coasts,” said US Rep. Pallone.  “New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut should be working together to preserve our coastlines for all residents and visitors to enjoy.  On Earth Day, we should unite and fight these efforts to undermine our beaches and our marine ocean environment.”

“There are numerous sources of alternative energy, like wind and solar, that can be used to meet increased energy demand.  The use of these clean alternatives should be further explored, instead of handcuffing ourselves to greater fossil fuel dependency,” said NJ Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-15) in a statement.

“We must come together as a community to preserve and protect our ocean against these proposed LNG ports,” said NJ Assemblyman Dave Rible (R-11).  “A clean and healthy ocean is essential to our economy and the recreational activities we enjoy in Monmouth County.  We cannot afford to have these environmental hazards located off our shores.”

“We already know the path to a cleaner, greener future: efficiency, conservation, and renewables – not more foreign fossil fuels,” said David Byer, COA Water Policy Attorney.  “Efficiency and conservation pay for themselves over time, while these LNG projects would just pay the shareholders of Exxon and other Big Oil.”

Liquefied natural gas: is grossly more polluting than domestic natural gas; increases our use and dependence on foreign fossil fuels; will lead to increased home energy bills by significantly increasing supply costs; port facilities and supplies that exist are under-utilized and more than meet our region's energy needs; steers us in the wrong direction away from existing conservation, efficiency, and renewable energy technologies and options; and opens the door to offshore oil and gas drilling.  Further, LNG is a bad choice for the ocean because it will devastate important fish habitat, and impact endangered and threatened species; damage seafloor habitat; destroy vast quantities of marine life; create navigational hazards, leading to accidents and spills; and the facilities will be exposed to stronger and more frequent hurricanes, nor’easters, and wind and wave risks.

Citizen Action Campaign Announced
At the rally, two group and citizen sign-on letters were released.  One is a letter to Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell, expressing outrage to comments made by her and Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal that promote building LNG facilities off New Jersey.  The second letter is to New York Governor David Patterson, which responds to comments by the NY Secretary of State that promote building LNG facilities at two sites off New Jersey.

Also, groups unveiled their action campaign to build opposition to the proposed port facilities, including online and paper petitions, a statement of opposition for groups, a sample resolution for municipalities, and a series of cartoons highlighting concerns with the projects and LNG.  The groups have a goal of obtaining 25,000 petition signatures by the end of summer.  Citizens of all ages and from all states are urged to sign the online petition at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/689151878.  The groups will engage citizen volunteers throughout the spring and summer to educate beach and festival-goers, and use various media outlets to bring the anti-LNG message to the public and elected officials.

Quotations from Groups Involved in the Campaign
“New Jersey’s commercial fishing industry has grave concerns about the environmental and economic impacts associated with building an artificial island in the middle of prime fishing grounds.  After many years of hard work to stop ocean dumping, we cannot sit by and watch it start all over again, because the island amounts to nothing more than ocean dumping,” said Jim Lovgren, Fishermen’s Dock Co-op.

“We at the Fishermen’s Conservation Association in NJ, NY, and CT are against the LNG proposals in our waters because of several concerns: a safety issue with the US Coast Guard not having the resources to protect the LNG tankers and the sites; the glut of 20 proposals in the Northeast with a few facilities coming on-line which will give us an over-capacity issue with no guarantee of savings; and as a fishing organization, the issue of exclusion zones of at least five square miles to fishing and boating in very productive areas,” said Vice President John Malizia (NY) and Leon Schnitzspahn (NJ), habitat chairmen, Fishermen’s Conservation Association.

“Like a bad neighbor, Exxon is there,” said Richard Lee, Treasurer, Surfers’ Environmental Alliance.

“We need to conserve energy.  We need to focus on encouraging the development of renewable energy sources: solar, wind, hydro, and nuclear.  We should not construct offshore LNG terminals to facilitate our addiction to nonrenewable carbon fuels,” said Bruce Smith, Jersey Coast Angler’s Association.

“Current LNG technology requires billions of gallons of seawater for tanker ballast and cooling water to dissipate heat during the gasification process.  The uptake of ocean water from Long Island Sound kills millions of fish in various stages of development, per year.  The magnitude of this mortality can far exceed directed harvest of recreational fishermen and seriously compromises the rebuilding objectives contained in various fishery management plans.  Furthermore, LNG facilities would compromise access to traditional fishing grounds.  LNGs off our coast are simply not appropriate,” said Jim Donofrio, Executive Director, Recreational Fishing Alliance.

“As a life-long ocean advocate from northeastern Monmouth County, it is an outrage to see that elected state officials from Connecticut and New York have thrown us, and all those that enjoy the Jersey shore, under the barge.  The NIMBY mentality has reached all the way to the top with these elected officials.  The real rubbish is their total lack of understanding of just how critical this issue is to the well being of all of us along the eastern seaboard.  We challenge them to create an energy vision that encourages conservation and protection of our ocean and what she offers to each of us.  Mother Nature is not happy and neither are we,” said Scott S. Thompson, Director General, Paddleout.org.

“Many in the government consider the south shore of Long Island a dumping ground.  If the gas barge was no good for the Long Island Sound, then it should be no good for the Ocean,” said Phil Healey, Biltmore Shores Civic Association, Massapequa, NY.
 
“The Monmouth County Audubon Society, which represents eleven hundred members, opposes the two offshore LNG proposals because they will contribute to global warming, will increase dependence on foreign energy sources, have a major negative impact on the marine environment, and are unsafe due to the increased shipping traffic.  These projects have never been built before and New Jersey should not be the guinea pig with unknown consequences,” said Stuart Malmid, President, Monmouth County Audubon Society.

About the Proposed Offshore LNG Projects
A private investment group, the Atlantic Sea Island Group, is proposing to build a man-made island for a LNG terminal and industrial complex 13 miles from Long Beach, NY, and 19 miles from Sea Bright, NJ.  The so-called “Safe Harbor” island will require dumping 16 million tons of material from unknown sources into the ocean, destroy 116 acres of seafloor & habitat, exclude boaters from large areas of the ocean in prime fishing grounds, and rip-up the ocean floor with 25.6 miles of new sub-sea pipeline.

ExxonMobil is proposing a floating LNG terminal – a new and never-proven technology – for 20 miles off Manasquan, NJ.  A similar project proposed in Long Island Sound was denied a state permit due to being inconsistent with New York State coastal policy.  Also, Governor Schwarzenegger in California vetoed a similar proposal due to significant threats to air quality and marine life.

For more information and actions to oppose these projects, go to www.cleanoceanaction.org.

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