MIDDLETOWN — The Monmouth County League of Women Voters will sponsor a forum “Off-Shore Oil and Gas: At What Cost?” at Brookdale Community College, Lincroft, 7:15 p.m. Tuesday, April 21.
The forum will take place in the Warner Student Life Center, Twin Lights Rooms 1 & 2, Parking is most convenient in lot 7.
The forum provide the opportunity to meet and hear a variety of experts and to ask questions about the construction of liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities and possible drilling for oil off Monmouth County beaches and the New Jersey coast. Questions have been raised by the public about the political and economic implications and whether this energy is intended for New Jersey, the impact this might have on New Jersey’s efforts to increase renewable energy sources, impacts on commercial and recreational use and protection of ocean resources, and whether this would require new pipelines, storage facilities, refineries or power plants.
Panelists will be: Dr. Ken Able, marine biologist and director of the Marine Field Station, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, who has looked at deep water habitats out to the Continental Shelf; Dr. Clinton Andrews, director of the Urban Planning Program at The Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers, and an expert in energy, regional planning issues, and the energy grid; David Byer, water policy attorney for Clean Ocean Action (COA) and co-author of the report “LNG: An Un-American Energy Source”; and Gordon Shearer, CEO for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) at Hess. Hess is not an “interested party” in the three LNG facilities currently proposed for off Monmouth County.
A recent public hearing held by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration, on a proposal to build an island off Sea Bright as a terminal to receive liquefied natural gas, drew a crowd of more than 500 people but was not intended as an opportunity for the public to ask questions.
The forum by the Monmouth County League of Women Voters will offer that opportunity and is being co-sponsored by Brookdale’s History and Political Science Association.
As part of its public education and outreach mission, the league sponsors such forums periodically on critical issues for county residents.
For more information, contact Louise Usechak, [email protected], 732- 842-1370 or Sherri West at swest@brookdalecc. edu, 732-224-2410.