PA ‘Energy Summit’ projects don’t include a Delaware River LNG terminal; opponents remain vigilant
While President Donald Trump, Governor Josh Shapiro and U.S. Senator Dave McCormick were busy at one end of the state on Tuesday, July 15, holding a “Pennsylvania Energy Summit,” environmental groups were busy at the other end of the state drumming up opposition to a proposed LNG export terminal anywhere along the Delaware County expanse of the Delaware Riverfront.
The summit, held in Pittsburgh, ended with the three political leaders and dozens of industry officials designating $90 billion in new energy spending in Pennsylvania.
The projects feature natural gas-fired and nuclear power plants, mainly to provide energy for AI and data centers. The projects also include new pipelines and natural gas production as well as electrical grid enhancement.
The good news was that none of the $90 billion in projects is for an LNG terminal along the Delaware River and none of the projects are located in, or close to, Delaware County, according to a list issued after the summit.
The bad news is, none are clean energy projects, involving wind or solar, which the president has cancelled or curtailed nationwide as he turns back to the dirty fossil fuel industry for the nation’s energy needs.
In the meantime, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living (CRCQL) held an informational meeting at the Providence Friends Meeting House to enlist the support of county residents outside of the Tinicum-to-Marcus Hook riverside industrial corridor to oppose an LNG Export Terminal.
In June, Franc James, CEO of Penn America Energy Holdings LLC, met with President Trump and said afterward that, while Penn America is no longer looking for a site in Chester for an LNG terminal, it was looking at sites nearby, including in Trainer, Eddystone and Marcus Hook, which is already exporting natural gas products overseas for plastics production.
Riverkeepers and CRCQL emphasized at the educational meeting that no site anywhere along the Delaware County expanse of the river would be adequate to safely operate an LNG terminal.
Virtually all other LNG terminals in the United States are built in areas away from population areas, due to the pollution they emit and the possibility of fire and explosion they pose, according to Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of the Delaware Riverkeepers Network.
LNG terminals need at least 1,000 acres, including a wide buffer area, Carluccio said. One site that was widely discussed is the old Ford plant in Chester, that is currently only about 100 acres. Even if the LNG site was pared down to about 600 acres, it would require the acquisition and demolition of dozens of houses and other structures around the Ford plant.
In the tiny, one-square-mile of Eddystone, the only feasible site is the Eddystone Power Station, about 88 acres, which is slated to shut down. Even there, a pared-down 600-acre LNG plant would extend to the far side of the busy Rt. 291 Industrial Highway and involve similar demolition of homes and businesses, she said.
Trainer and Marcus Hook are already overcrowded with polluting and dangerous industries, including Monroe Energy, which produces jet fuel, and the Marcus Hook export facility.
Carluccio explained that pollutants from an LNG plant would likely include nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), sulfuric acid and greenhouse gases, all of them harmful to humans.
Lauren Minsky, visiting assistant professor for medicine and environmental health at Haverford College, detailed the already heavy burden of air pollution along the corridor, including much higher rates of several kinds of cancer and childhood asthma. Local and statewide cancer rates can be viewed here.
Zulene Mayfield, chair of CRCQL, told the group of about 40, that the fight against the proposed LNG terminal and against other existing polluting industries is not just a Chester fight “because air pollution doesn’t stay in Chester.”
While most local politicians oppose the LNG export terminal, a bill in the Pennsylvania Legislature, HB 502, if enacted would bar counties and municipalities from having any say whatsoever in energy projects approved by the state, she said. The bill currently sits in the House Energy Committee.
Mayfield said that her organization’s actions appear to have beat back Penn America CEO James’ initial plan to put an LNG export terminal in Chester, based on what he said in June, but “no one knows what’s in that man’s mind.”
Moreover, an LNG terminal anywhere else in Delaware County or Philadelphia would be no better in terms of pollution or fire risk. This is a fight everyone in Delaware County needs to join, she said.
By Jodine Mayberry for the Clearinghouse
View the Riverkeepers’ and CRCQL “Community Speaks Out Against Fossil Fuels” videos HERE.
To join Riverkeepers, click HERE. To join CRCQL, click HERE.
To Join the League of Women Voters, which maintains the Delaware County Environmental Clearinghouse, join HERE and click on “membership portal” in upper left corner.