Thank you for the opportunity to submit testimony to the City Council Committees on Environmental Conservation and Waterfronts regarding the application by Liberty Natural Gas, LLC (Liberty) to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) deepwater port facility called Port Ambrose, roughly 19 miles from the New York shore. We oppose this unnecessary and environmentally irresponsible project, and we therefore support Resolution 549 calling on Governor Cuomo to veto the application.

The construction and operation of Port Ambrose would have a strongly negative ecological impact on its surroundings, discharge millions of gallons of chemically treated seawater and require the dredging of miles of sea floor. Port Ambrose would further aggravate environmental degradation by increasing New York’s reliance on natural gas, a methane-emitting fuel. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the leading international body for the assessment of climate change, methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas, is 86 times more effective than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in our atmosphere over a 20-year period. This is, of course, in addition to the potential havoc wrought to New York’s coastline if an extreme weather event, such as another Hurricane Sandy, were to damage a vulnerable offshore facility of this type. Moreover, Port Ambrose could pose a grave security risk for New York. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, liquefied natural gas facilities are a potential terrorist target. Any explosion or fire from an LNG facility in the New York harbor would be catastrophic.

This project also has the potential to interfere with the development of a far more environmentally responsible wind farm that has been proposed for this area. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, an agency of the U.S. Department of Interior, in its scoping comments on the Port Ambrose application, stated that it is “concerned that the proposal to construct a LNG port in the same area proposed for a large wind facility could result in serious conflicts—or at the minimum, complicating factors—that may impact the overall viability of one or both projects.” We and many of our constituents fear that this would not be a worthy tradeoff.

Furthermore, Port Ambrose is an unnecessary project. According to the 2014 Draft New York State Energy Plan, domestic production of natural gas is at its highest level in four decades and the “need for substantial increased volumes of imported LNG has diminished for the near term.” The Draft Energy Plan further states that this saturation of supply in natural gas has caused imports to decline every year from 2007 through 2012, a year in which just two of the twelve active LNG import terminals in the country received regular shipments.

In 2011 New Jersey Governor Chris Christie vetoed an application for an LNG port by Liberty off the coast of New Jersey, stating that “offshore LNG poses unacceptable risks to the state’s residents, natural resources, economy and security.” We urge Governor Cuomo to veto this project and continue to defend New York State’s precious environmental assets.

Thank you for your consideration of our comments.