The Conservative Myth otherwise known as Governor Chris Christie continues to bamboozle the American people. Just a few days ago, he was quoted in the Star Ledger regarding a proposed natural gas unloading facility that would be located 16 miles offshore of Asbury Park. 

“I will not subject our state’s shore and economy to the environmental risks that are inseparable from such a project,” Christie said in a statement.

 The only question you need to ask is a simple one, “What environmental risks, Gov. Christie”? 

 Natural gas is the common name for Methane (CH₄), a gas that in nature is clear and odorless.  And for that reason, energy producers who supply natural gas add to it a compound called methyl mercaptan that gives it the characteristic rotten egg odor so that users will be able to detect its presence.

 When methane is burned, the reaction produces a molecule of carbon dioxide and two molecules of water.  There are no other byproducts of the combustion.

 Now if you look around your home - or at other everyday places - you will realize just how environmentally benign natural gas is.  You can burn it in your home without ventilation.  In fact, in most areas of the country (New Jersey included) natural gas is constantly being released to the atmosphere from landfills, animals and people.  I won’t go into details about how it is coming out, but trust me, it is - hence the term “natural” gas. 

So the first thing we have seen is that Gov. Christie is wrong with regard to natural gas posing environmental risks.  What else about this facility would get his underwear into such a knot?

One thing might be the high-pressure pipeline system that would have to be built to carry the natural gas to the markets in which it would be used. Could this be the “risk” to which he refers?  I can assure him that a few new pipes mean nothing.  New Jersey - and any other state that uses natural gas extensively - is laced with the pipelines necessary to carry it, starting with every home supplied with natural gas for heating or cooking. The gas is delivered by pipes under the property which connect to bigger pipes under the street that, in turn connect to compressor stations supplied by even bigger high pressure pipes bringing the gas from places like the Gulf of Mexico or the new fields that are being developed in the Marcellus shale formation in Pennsylvania and other states.  Gov. Christie should know that thousands of miles of huge, high pressure pipelines criss-cross the country.  Here is a map of the major ones:

And here is a map of a few natural gas transmission pipelines near the Jersey shore:

These pipelines work every day of the year, year in and year out, delivering natural gas to heat homes, cook food, generate electricity and perform other essential tasks for a modern society.  The safety record of the industry is exemplary and the service almost flawless. Except for the instances when the pipelines surface at a compression station (see above map), most people do not even know they exist. Neither natural gas nor the pipeline system used to deliver it presents an environmental risk. 

 Let us now turn our attention to the last part of the natural gas unloading facility project.

 The plan is to build an artificial island off shore, sixteen miles east of Asbury Park, to receive liquefied natural gas (LGN) tanker ships and transfer the gas to shore. Perhaps Gov. Christie believes its existence would be an environmental disaster because it would be visible to the average beach-goer. Well, he needn’t worry about that: at beach level the sight horizon is about three and a half miles. In other words, you can’t see anything beyond that distance from the shore.  I have included a website that Gov. Christie can visit so he can understand how this works.   “How far is the horizon?”

Here is an architect’s rendering of the facility:

And this is what LGN tanker ships look like:

Now here it becomes a lot of fun.  What you are really looking at is a ship with the equivalent of five huge thermos bottles in its hull.  The key here is the term “liquefied natural gas.”  At room temperature and pressure, natural gas is just that - a gas - which by nature takes up a lot of room per unit weight.  In order to get more of “the good stuff” into a smaller volume, the gas is liquefied by refrigerating it and then putting it under pressure. This reduces the volume by over 1000 times, which means you can get over 1000 times the amount of the good stuff into the same container. 

Here is the procedure: an LGN tanker docks and unloads it cargo at the island facility. There the liquid is warmed to ambient temperature and then pumped into a pipeline that brings it to shore where it enters the distribution system.

What would happen if there was an accident at the facility?  If a leak occurred on the ship, the LGN would go into…the air. If a leak occurred in one of the holding tanks at the facility the gas would go into…the air.  If a pipe developed a leak either under the water or on land, the gas would go into…the air. 

The worst thing that could happen would be an explosion aboard a fully loaded LGN tanker. LGN itself is not flammable, but the moment the integrity of the tank is compromised (by a missile or explosive device, for example) the liquid would become highly flammable gas almost instantaneously. The resulting explosion would cascade to the other tanks, creating a mega-blast what would likely destroy facility itself. Hence the precaution of locating it sixteen miles away from the shore.  

Even if this scenario occurred, the combustion of the gas would create only carbon dioxide and water.  Snooki and the rest of the Jersey Shore cast would be in no danger of being cancelled by an offshore natural gas explosion. 

Gov. Christie must understand that this facility presents no environmental risk to the Jersey shore or an economy that relies on the willingness of tourists to bake themselves in the summer sun. The only risk I can see from this project -and it isn’t a major risk - is the possibility of an explosion aboard an LGN tanker.

 Is this facility a good idea?  In my opinion, the answer is no. Surprised?  Consider this: the gas offloaded from these tankers would be coming from Trinidad and Tobago, further increasing our nation’s dependence on foreign energy sources. The risk here is not environmental, but economical and Gov. Christie - the “conservative savior of New Jersey” should have known that. We should be developing the deposits in the Marcellus shale formations and furthering our use of coal to generate electricity. 

 In the course of a debate with his opponent last year, Gov. Christie said “I went to law school because I really couldn’t do math or science.”  Instead of proving day after day the truth of this admission, we at Conservative New Jersey urge the Governor to consult us for the expertise and knowledge that his administration appears to woefully lack