Posted on 12/12/2007 4:40:13 AM PST by thackney
DALLAS — Exxon Mobil Corp. said Tuesday it wants to anchor a floating liquefied natural gas terminal 20 miles off New Jersey.
The receiving terminal would cost more than $1 billion to build and be able to supply about 1.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, enough for more than 5 million residential customers, to New York and New Jersey, Exxon Mobil said.
If regulators approve the terminal, it would go into operation in the middle of the next decade, Exxon Mobil said.
Many power plants built in the last decade burn natural gas, which is seen as cleaner than coal. But high natural gas prices have sent homeowners' electric bills soaring in many parts of the country and have raised concern about power supplies.
Exxon Mobil is working on three other liquefied natural gas terminal projects near Sabine Pass, Texas, in Wales, and off the Adriatic coast of Italy.
Exxon Mobil has run into opposition from residents and environmentalists at some proposed sites in the U.S.
Jeff Tittel, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, said his organization was not opposed to liquefied natural gas "because we think it's a lot cleaner than coal" and produces lower emissions of greenhouse gases.
Tittel said the offshore location was an advantage because a terminal on land would be more vulnerable to terrorism.
"If one of them ever exploded, it would pretty much destroy everything within a mile," he said.
The vessel to be anchored off New Jersey is called BlueOcean Energy and will be designed to receive supplies of liquefied natural gas from ships about twice a week. It would be connected to the mainland through a new subsea pipeline, probably reaching shore in Raritan Bay.
The project is at the beginning of what the Irving-based company called "a lengthy and rigorous permitting process" involving the public, state and federal agencies.
As the President of the Sierra Club of Bayonne, NJ, I, personally, and our “Club” unanimously and fully support the building of the LPNG port offshore of “The Garden State”, as it will clearly improve both the view and the quality of our lives. Nuf said!
We need more industry in NJ and if there’s anything we know well it’s energy (or in this case, gas).
Bayonne in particular needs more industry to pay property taxes. MOTBY should be an industrial site.
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