Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Exports
LNG exports represents game over for Pennsylvania and maybe the planet. Cove Point, the proposed LNG export facility in Maryland, would be the first of its kind on the East Coast and would bring thousands of new wells to Pennsylvania in just the first year. Cabot Oil & Gas has already struck an agreement to provide Japan with liquefied gas for the next 20 years from Cove Point. The customer for the rest of the gas leaving Cove Point is India.
In anticipation of the Stop Fracked Gas Exports: Cove Point & Beyond rally in Washington, D.C. on July 13, 2014, we gathered stories from organizations working to fight LNG, the related infrastructure, or the fracking itself.
A Tale of Two Rivers
Berks County is in both the Delaware and Susquehanna River Basins, so Berks Gas Truth participates in efforts to protect both. The Delaware River Basin is still under a moratorium on fracking, but not on pipelines and other infrastructure.
Take the Pledge of Protection that you’ll join us in taking action to protect the Delaware River Basin from fracking.
Visit our Pipelines and Infrastructure page to learn about pipeline and compressor station projects, natural gas power plants, liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants, gas to liquids plants (GTL) and other projects proposed here in Berks and throughout the basin.
The Susquehanna enjoys no protection from fracking. In 2011, American Rivers named it the Most Endangered River because of the risks posed by shale gas development. The Susquehanna River Basin Commission has permitted water extractions that have removed millions of gallons of water from the River and have never required a comprehensive study of the environmental impacts of gas drilling on the river.
Tell the Susquehanna River Basin Commission to manage the river responsibly.
Keystone XL Pipeline
The Keystone XL pipeline is tied to a different extreme fossil fuel, tar sands, reputed to be the filthiest of the fossil fuels. The controversial border crossing from Canada in to the United States that requires Presidential approval has held up construction of Phase 4 of the Keystone pipeline project. The first two phases were completed in 2010 and are referred to as the Keystone pipeline. Keystone XL is an expansion project comprised of two phases. Unfortunately, when President Obama said he didn’t have sufficient information to approve the border crossing, TransCanada announced plans to proceed with Phase 3 of the project. That’s the leg that extends the Keystone to the Gulf Coast. The company argued that the border crossing did not affect Phase 3 and that the expansion would fall under existing U.S. regulatory control. The President agreed with their argument, so construction of Phase 3 began. The only remaining leg of the Keystone XL expansion not yet approved is Phase 4. Unfortunately, as important as it is to fight the additional capacity, we have lost the battle to prevent a Keystone pipeline that extends from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast.
Berks Gas Truth’s Karen Feridun compiled a number of resources for a talk on Keystone XL and Natural Gas Pipelines for a presentation to the Sierra Club.