By Ellen Yan Long Island Newsday

A natural gas transfer port has been proposed for ocean waters about 19 miles south of Jones Beach, a proposed system that failed in New Jersey and now has Long Island and environmental leaders fuming.

Liberty Natural Gas, part of an investment fund based in the Cayman Islands, wants to supply the downstate region with natural gas that tankers would bring from overseas.

“If there would have been an explosion, what would that have done to Long Beach?”

The company last year withdrew its application for a similar transfer port off Asbury Park, N.J.

For more on this story go to:

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/proposed-gas-port-off-jones-beach-worries-li-opponents-1.5187578

Related story:

Liberty Natural Gas Proposal–Withdrawn!

Faced with the Certainty of Defeat, Liberty Natural Gas Gives Up: Withdraws Offshore Industrial Application!!

Under the certainty of defeat, thanks to the firm, unequivocal, veto issued by NJ Governor Christie, Liberty Natural Gas, LLC, (owned by a Canadian investment firm) has officially withdrawn their application to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal off the coast of New Jersey and New York – effective April 20, 2012.

As a result, the Maritime Administration (MARAD) announced yesterday that it has terminated all activities and processing of the application.

“This is a victory for the ocean and for the thousands of citizens and scores of organizations that fought for 5 years against this wrongful proposal,” said Cindy Zipf, Executive Director of Clean Ocean Action.  “With Governor Christie’s firm opposition, this project was dead in the water.  It is about time they faced reality and withdrew/terminated the project.  It’s over for now, but they are lurking and may be back” she added.

Recently, armed with the NJ Governor’s veto and frustrated by MARAD’s inaction over the last year (in refusing to deny the LNG port application), Clean Ocean Action and 30 other environmental groups from Montauk, NY, to Cape May, NJ, sent a letter, on April 3, to the federal government demanding that this unnecessary foreign fossil fuel facility be shown the door – officially (read the letter here).

One week after the collective voices of the citizens and organization of New York and New Jersey called for the denial of the LNG port, Liberty LNG, withdrew the application.

On April 10, lawyers for Liberty Natural Gas sent a letter to MARAD claiming that the company had determined that they need a “complete overhaul of the application materials” and, therefore, “Liberty hereby withdraws its current application.”

“This victory is a great win to cap-off Earth Month, but we must remain vigilant.  We need permanent protection of our region from these reckless proposals; it is time for the Clean Ocean Zone, a legislative initiative to prohibit harmful industrialization of this remarkable ocean region,” said Zipf.

For more on this story go to:

http://www.cleanoceanaction.org/index.php?id=793