The Continued Fight Against Exporting Liquified Natural Gas
Today multiple environmental organizations called on the President's chief environmental advisor asking for a full environmental analysis of plans to export liquefied natural gas (LNG). The letter to the Council on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency sounds the alarm that the agencies considering these export plans are not analyzing or disclosing the environmental impacts of the increased hydraulic fracturing or 'fracking' that would be necessary to support major LNG exports.
“Liquefied natural gas is not only the dirtiest and most polluting form of gas, but it also requires an increase in fracking; a process we know to be unsafe and dangerous,” said Deb Nardone, Director of Sierra Club’s Natural Gas Reform Campaign. “The industry is pushing forward with these export facilities with their profits in mind, not the families who will bear the burden of increased fracking.”
With the health of our communities and our environment at stake, it's up to our leaders at EPA and other agencies to keep their commitment to protecting Americans from the toxic threats to our air and water that come with liquefied natural gas.
The letter is signed by the Sierra Club, the Columbia Riverkeeper, the Delaware Riverkeeper, Earthjustice, Friends of Living Oregon Waters (FLOW), Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper and the Rogue Riverkeeper. Click here to read the letter. (PDF)
This move comes on the heels of the Sierra Club filing the first formal objection with the Department of Energy against the export of domestic gas produced from fracking. That filing challenges the export of Marcellus shale gas and others from its Cove Point, MD facility, citing that exports would raise gas and electricity prices nationally and expand destructive natural gas fracking.
This objection called the export proposal an unwise plan which would make a dirty fuel even more dangerous. That was the third LNG export facility the organization has opposed. Facilities in Coos Bay, OR, Sabine Pass, LA and Cove Point, MD are the first three challenged by the Sierra Club.
