The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has found that a proposed liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal nine miles off Long Island doesn’t pose an environmental threat.

Tankers for the floating plant, which would be connected to an undersea pipeline and supply LNG to New York and Connecticut, would either pass through Block Island Sound or approach from the north after passing between the island and Montauk, N.Y.

The FERC released its environmental impact study on the plant January 11. The study was conducted along with the U.S. Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers and Environmental Protection Agency, among other agencies.

Broadwater LNG plans to build a storage and re-gasification unit tethered to the ocean floor in Long Island Sound, where tankers would unload LNG bound for a new section of underwater pipeline that would hook up with an existing pipeline nearby. Two to three tankers would unload there each week after first stopping at pilot stations in either Point Judith or Montauk.

According to Broadwater, two-thirds of Long Island residents support the plan, which could save the average household in the area about $300 a year in energy costs.

The FERC report notes that energy needs in the region are rising while existing supplies of natural gas are expected to dry up. “The use of natural gas for electrical generation, rather than coal or oil, is directed toward meeting regional air quality objectives,” it says. “The proposed project would reduce the area’s future need for new or expanded interstate natural gas pipelines by providing a local supply of natural gas that uses existing distribution facilities.”

At the same time, says the report, “construction and operation of the project… would result in limited adverse environmental impacts.”

The Coast Guard has recommended a safety zone surrounding each tanker in transit that would be about a mile wide and three miles long. The FERC report says the safety measure would still allow room for recreational and fishing vessels to traverse The Race, the channel through Long Island Sound, but some boating and fishing groups oppose the plan because of fears that the plant would constrict marine traffic.

For more information, visit www.ferc.gov and see the announcement at the top of the “What’s new” section.

A proposal by Weaver’s Cove Energy to site an onshore terminal up Narragansett Bay in Fall River, Mass., has also received conditional approval from FERC but has met with local resistance. The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management last August rejected the company’s plan to dredge Mount Hope Bay to enable tankers to reach the proposed terminal. Massachusetts has refused to remove a bridge that would block the passage of large tankers, and the Coast Guard has voiced concerns.

Another proposal for an LNG terminal in Providence by KeySpan LNG was turned down by FERC in 2005.