Groups urge Gov’s to veto Port Ambrose LNG project

An advocacy group, Food & Water Watch, sent a letter to Governors Chris Christie and Andrew Cuomo signed by 217 national, state and local organizations, calling on the governors to veto Port Ambrose LNG project.

According to the letter, there is no convincing demonstration for the need of this project for imports, or for future exports. Nonetheless, as an import facility alone, Port Ambrose would present significant environmental concerns, including threats to public safety, the ocean ecology, and tourism and fishing.

Upon approval, Port Ambrose would establish the region’s first industrial facility in 14 years, create a navigational hazard near the entrance to the busiest port on the east coast, threaten livelihoods by excluding fisherman from important and traditional fishing grounds, and pose a risk to national-security due to the highly volatile nature of LNG and proximity to the New York Harbor and several international airports, the letter said.

The group fears the project could be later used as an LNG export facility due to current market conditions and warn that by pitching it as an import hub, backers are able to ignore the extensive problems this facility would cause for communities across the country.

If converted to an export facility, the project’s threats would be compounded by the extent it would drive demand for drilling and fracking for natural gas, stands in the letter. The group warns of fracking downsides as well as the expansion of project’s accompanying pipelines.

The group calls for Governors to continue on their previous decisions, namely Governor Cuomo banned fracking while Governor Christie vetoed a similar project.

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LNG World News Staff; Image: Port of Ambrose