The Northeast region of the United States has growing demands for energy. It is also an area where many people are passionate about environmental issues.

Exxon Mobil says that it's seeking a balance between those two realities in announcing plans to build a floating terminal, 20 miles off the coast of New Jersey, for shipments of liquefied natural gas.

Exxon says that the project, called BlueOcean Energy, will have the capacity to supply about 1.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, which is "enough to meet the needs of more than 5 million residential consumers."

"We believe that BlueOcean Energy is a unique and innovative solution to meeting the region's energy challenges," said Ron P. Billings, vice president for global liquid natural gas at the Exxon Mobil Gas and Power Marketing Company.

The terminal would be a boatlike structure roughly the size of four football fields, measuring 100 feet high. It would receive supplies from tankers about twice a week (when it's supercooled, natural gas becomes a liquid and can be transported like oil). The stored liquid would then be warmed to turn it back into natural gas and delivered to New Jersey and New York markets through a new pipeline under the ocean connecting new and existing onshore pipelines.

Exxon is at the beginning of a long approval process with state and federal government agencies.

Since the September 11 attacks, there have been concerns that liquefied natural gas terminals could be targets for terrorists. A plan to build a terminal in Fall River, Massachusetts, has been met with fierce opposition. In addition, there are environmental concerns.

"It's really the beginning of the age of ocean sprawl," Tim Dillingham, executive director of the American Littoral Society, told the Star-Ledger of Newark, citing other proposals to build offshore terminals in Long Island Sound and near Massachusetts. "The bottom line is the public has fought long and hard to clean up the ocean from sewage sludge and industrial waste. We didn't do that to turn over a cleaned-up ocean for industry to profit from."