SOUTH SHORE

Feds hit pause on Port Ambrose

Government needs time to review plan, public comments

Posted

The U.S. Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration last month officially suspended the legal timeline for federal review of Port Ambrose, a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal 18.5 miles off the coast of Jones Beach, citing more than 10,000 public comments they received between December and March, among other reasons for the delay.

The agencies sent a letter on March 17 to Liberty Natural Gas LLC, the company seeking to build Port Ambrose, informing it that they were extending the timeframe the federal Deepwater Port Act establishes for public hearings. They are currently reviewing a draft environmental impact statement on the project and are yet to issue a final EIS, after which there will likely be at least two more meetings, one in New York and one in New Jersey.

This is the third time the government has stopped the Deepwater Port Act’s clock for Port Ambrose. The law requires that public hearings take place within 240 days after the Federal Register publishes notice of a deepwater port license application. That would have been Feb. 9, 2014, in Liberty’s case — but the government previously stopped the clock on Oct. 21, 2013, and again on March 7, 2014, giving Liberty more time to supply information missing from its application. The clock was set to expire on April 6 this year, if not for the agencies’ recent action.

In their letter, the Coast Guard and MARAD said they needed more time to “ensure all reasonable comments are properly considered and responded to,” analyze the impact Port Ambrose would have on the ocean floor and the surrounding air, and gather further information from Liberty on its finances. They acknowledged receiving 10,000 public comments, including form letters and petitions, and they cautioned that this number “may grow as comments continue to post.”

“I’d say it’s above the normal amount,” said Roddy Bachman, an officer in the Coast Guard’s Deepwater Ports Standards Division.

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