By Karen Melton, Southeastern Pennsylvania Group
Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) makes me think of this quote by Michael Pollan in his book The Omnivore's Dilemma: The Search for a Perfect Meal in a Fast-Food World: “Growing corn, which from a biological perspective had always been a process of capturing sunlight to turn into food, has in no small measure become a process of converting fossil fuels into food.”
LNG is by every measure a process of converting a lot of fossil fuel into a lot less fossil fuel. First there is the initial energy required to extract methane gas. It is then transported by some means requiring energy to a liquification plant -- these processes typically leak methane along the way. Then significant energy is expended cooling the methane gas to -260 degrees Fahrenheit to convert it to a liquid. Next it is again transported via truck or ship to a regasification plant where energy is used to heat it back to a gas, after which it is transported a third time to end users.
Just imagine if those end users lived on a planet that is bathed in sunlight and has blowing winds and warm temperatures available underground that can generate geothermal energy.
Corporations in the business of extracting fossil fuels are wildly profitable, and even so receive enormous government subsidies that cover much of their costs associated with drilling and exploration followed by additional tax credits. They are also allowed to treat the atmosphere as a free open sewer. No wonder they are anxious to develop more markets for methane gas, these days most notably LNG and petrochemicals, particularly those used to produce plastics.
As a result, the health of communities around the U.S. and their surrounding environments is on the line as they become targets for LNG facilities. One is the city of Chester, PA in Delaware County. Chester is an environmental justice community -- one of the poorest cities in Pennsylvania, and already houses a number of polluting industries. Those include an incineration plant that opened in 1992 and has consistently been one of the most significant sources of pollution in the region, especially PM 2.5 – particles that are less than 2.5 micrometers and small enough to enter deep into human lungs.
Chester is now fighting a new potential source of pollution and disruption, a plant to convert methane gas to liquified natural gas (LNG) for export. The plan was hatched by the PA State Legislature which created a ‘Philadelphia LNG Task Force’ in 2022. The task force was supposed to examine making the ‘Port of Philadelphia an LNG export terminal’, but when that quickly proved to be a non-starter, turned its attention to Chester. It is required to conduct three hearings, the first two of which were orchestrated to include only speakers in favor.
The task force itself is stacked in favor of the fossil fuel industry, including as members the Pennsylvania director of the American Petroleum Institute, and state senator Gene Yaw, who represents counties in the Marcellus Shale region.
Joe Hohenstein, a task force member and state representative for the 177th district in Philadelphia, intervened so that the third meeting was held in Chester, and included people who would speak for the community. This standing-room only hearing, packed with community supporters, was held on August 22nd and included two ‘pro’ speakers – a consultant who talked about the jobs that would be required to build and operate an LNG plant, and former Chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Neil Chatterjee. To the amazement of many present, Chatterjee spoke at length about how FERC, which has approved 99% of all fossil fuel applications over the past 20+ years, strives to make ‘community interest’ a priority in its decision making. The amazement was cleared up by WHYY reporting that Chatterjee currently serves on the advisory board of Penn America Energy which is behind a proposal to bring the LNG export terminal to Chester.
Two community representatives spoke in opposition including Stefan Roots, current Chester City Council member and Democratic winner of the May primary for mayor. Roots testified that Chester already exceeds “every measurable health disparity – asthma, birth defects, COPD, infant mortality, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, and a shorter life expectancy.” The second community speaker was Zulene Mayfield, a renowned champion fighting pollution in Chester on behalf of Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living (CRCQL, pronounced circle). Mayfield pointed out that no one on the task force was from Chester, or even from Delaware County and spoke of the long history of polluting industries in Chester. She told the task force “This is a community you ought not even try to think of coming in” and described the project as “environmental genocide.”
The task force is supposed to issue a report with recommendations in November. The land targeted by the proposal is only 100 acres, a tenth the size of a plant in Cove Point, MD, smaller than what is proposed in Chester. A neighborhood including churches, small businesses and dozens of houses would have to be torn down to provide a perimeter. According to DeSmog.com, an organization doing research and investigative journalism focused on climate change, this is just one of approximately 20 new LNG export facilities planned in the U.S, with many having already received federal approvals despite local opposition.
The lead organization in southeastern Pennsylvania tracking and organizing opposition to two different potential LNG projects in the region – Chester and Gibbstown, New Jersey -- is the the Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN). Collaborating with many other local organizations and individuals including the Sierra Club's Southeastern Pennsylvania Group, DRN has fought for years against fossil fuel transport by rail through Pennsylvania from Wyalusing in Bradford County and across the Delaware River into New Jersey; the use of water from the river for fracking; the dumping of fracking wastewater in the river basin; and the effort to turn Gibbstown into an LNG export terminal. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network has appealed all the major permits for the proposed Gibbstown LNG project. DRN’s legal challenges and public opposition to the Gibbstown project have already delayed construction of ‘Dock 2’, the portion of the facility that would function as an LNG export terminal, by several years.
This blog was included as part of the October 2023 Sylvanian newsletter. Please click here to check out more articles from this edition!