MIDDLETOWN — The Monmouth County League of Women Voters sponsored a forum on a controversial proposal to build a facility for liquefied natural gas off the shore of Sea Bright.

"Off-Shore Oil and Gas: At What Cost?" was held April 21 at Brookdale Community College in the Warner Student Life Center.

The forum gave the public the opportunity to hear a variety of experts and to ask questions about the construction of LNG facilities, and possible drilling for oil, off Monmouth County beaches and the New Jersey coast.

Interest in the LNG facilities is a result of two proposals, from ExxonMobil and New York City-based investment group Atlantic Sea Island Group (ASIG), calling for deep-water LNG ports to be built and operated within miles of the Jersey Shore coastline.

According to a press release from the league, concerns raised by the public include: whether the LNG is intended for use in New Jersey; the impact on efforts to increase renewable energy sources; impacts on commercial and recreational uses; protection of ocean resources; and whether the facility would require new pipelines, storage facilities, refineries or power plants.

Ken Able, a marine biologist and director of the Marine Field Station, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, said he has studied deep-water habitats out to the Continental Shelf and spoke about the potential impact the offshore projects may have on marine wildlife.

"Fishes have complex life histories," Able said. "They have eggs, they have larvae, they have juveniles and adults, and each of those stages has a different ecology and habitat requirements."

He said that fish are highly migratory and the addition of large structures into the ocean can affect their migratory patterns.

"The fishes that are there one day, may not be there the next day," Able said.

He said that it is important to study the fishes' movement to know what effect the offshore hubs will have.

"You can't think about managing fishes or managing their habitat or think about the impact on their habitats until you understand something about the movements of these fishes," Able said.

He said that data over the last 30 years shows that there will be changes.

"What is the response likely going to be when we experience climate change?" Able said. "We are experiencing climate change as we have data from the early 1970s, and it shows a clear, variable but clear, pattern increase in temperatures and milder winters. We see more and more southern species and fewer and fewer northern species."

Clinton Andrews, director of the Urban Planning Program at The Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers and an expert on energy, regional planning issues and the energy grid, spoke about energy policy related to LNG.

"We are not strangers to oil refineries, power plants to gas pipelines," Andrews said. "Part of the question that we really want to ask is, are we glad it's there or are we sad it's there, and are we getting some benefit for having all of this."

Andrews broke down for those in attendance the energy policy options being considered by the U.S. and the groups proposing them.

David Byer, water policy attorney for Clean Ocean Action (COA) and co-author of the report "LNG: An Un-American Energy Source," spoke about offshore drilling and LNG and gave COA's argument against recent proposals.

Byer said the United States is energy-independent for natural gas with 97 percent of the U.S. need supplied by North American sources and 86 percent produced by the U.S. Under current consumption, natural gas supplies are expected to last for 120 years, he said.

"We're not saying 'no natural gas,'" Byer said. "But we are looking at it not because it's cheaper than coal, but that it's cleaner than coal. The pollution from the LNG facilities defeats the purpose."

Byer said that most of the LNG hubs are not even being used 90 percent of the time.

"The ones in New England that are being used all of the time are the exception but the ones that are being presented are not going to be used as much." Byer said.

Nagar Matsukawa is the vice president for LNG supply at Hess Oil and said that he was speaking not as a supporter of the offshore project, but also not as someone speaking against it.

"I am not here presenting any offshore projects," Matsukawa said. "I am not involved with any of the offshore projects but I am hoping that I can give you some general idea of what LNG is all about."

Matsukawa said that he has been working with LNG exportation for more than 30 years and the response to it seems to be cyclical.

"This is not the first time LNG has been brought up," Matsukawa said. "In the mid- 70s everyone was talking about LNG, so its like deja-vu. For some reason there was a change in how things were done and that accelerated gas production."

He said he worked with the exportation of LNG from Alaska to Japan in the 1970s and that LNG is not something that is new in the United States.

"The U.S. is kind of the father of LNG exporting," Matsukawa said.

A recent public hearing held by the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) on the ASIG proposal drew a crowd of more than 500 people.

Consultants for Atlantic Sea Island Group have argued that LNG would provide a cheaper source of energy in New Jersey as well as help alleviate global warming and ensure adequate supplies of natural gas.

Another public hearing was held Jan. 29 in Long Beach, N.Y. On Feb. 15, ASIG filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeking a preliminary injunction to stay a decision by MARAD that gave New Jersey review power of the LNG proposal.

The decision by U.S. Maritime Administrator Sean T. Connaughton to uphold his designation of New Jersey as an adjacent coastal state under the Deep Water Port Act (DWPA) of 1974 was considered a victory for environmental activists.

According to a fact sheet from the Coast Guard, the LNG facilities "would be constructed on an artificial, purpose built island, designed specifically for the import, storage, regasification and distribution of natural gas."

"This island would be constructed on site in the federal waters 13.5 miles south of Long Beach, N.Y., and 25 miles east of Sandy Hook. The island would be constructed in 18- to 21-meter waters situated in federal waters between the Ambrose to Nantucket to Hudson Canyon to Ambrose international shipping lanes."

Nearly 40 New Jersey and New York organizations and six Monmouth County municipalities, including Sea Bright, have signed resolutions opposing LNG projects off the coast.

The groups opposed to the LNG proposal are urging citizens to inform others about this perceived threat to the ocean and region, attend the meetings and send comments to the federal agencies opposing "Insanity Island." More information about LNG and the proposed LNG projects is posted at www.cleanoceanaction.org.

Contact Jamie Romm at jromm@gmnews.com.