Urgent: Tell DOE No LNG Exports! Comment by 4:30 pm Thursday

The Department of Energy (DOE) has permit requests for exporting Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) from 19 terminals that are currently permitted for import only. DOE consultants recently completed something called a “cumulative impacts study” which has such a narrow scope as to make the term “cumulative impacts” a joke. DOE has put the study out for public comment. The consultants who did the study focused on short-term positive economic benefits to the U.S. economy, the U.S. trade balance, the industry and the natural gas leaseholders, if the export permits were to be approved. They left out the economic cost of all cumulative damages to air, water, public health, farms, forests, communities and climate.

Take Action Now:

Deadline for comments is this Thursday at 4:30pm.  Use any of the means below and please forward.

1. Our allies at Marcellus Protest have created excellent talking points: use their link to comment directly to the DOE.
2. Use this CREDO link to send a message both to the DOE and, importantly, to President Obama.
3. Delaware Riverkeeper Network has created a message you can send to the DOE here. DRN is also sending an organizational sign-on letter, supported by Protecting Our Waters, critiquing the outrageously narrow scope of DOE’s  ”cumulative impacts” study.

Background: Basics on LNG Export

The Sierra Club is demanding investigation into the DOE LNG study’s ties to the natural gas industry, using the Freedom of Information Act.

LNG exports are a terrible idea for several reasons. Here are four, simply and broadly put:

1.      LNG exports would raise the price of fracked gas, making it more profitable for fracking corporations to continue,  and escalate, shale gas drilling.  This induced fracking, and the compressor stations, pipelines and other infrastructure fracking requires, damages air, water, animal and human health, and our communities’ quality of life.
2.      LNG exports would greatly increase the greenhouse gas footprint of shale gas, escalating climate change at a time when the latest science is showing a stunning 9% leakage rate for methane throughout the life cycle of shale gas extraction, processing and distribution. Considering that methane is 105 times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2 in global warming impact in the 20-year time frame (sources: NASA scientist Drew Shindell; Cornell shale gas researchers  Bob Howarth and Anthony Ingraffea), we absolutely cannot afford this climate impact.
3.      LNG exports would increase the danger of explosions: pipelines, transfer stations, and LNG tankers are vulnerable to explosions which could result in a large number of deaths, according to industry insiders.
4.     Finally, least dramatically but very importantly, LNG exports, by making shale gas more profitable, would escalate fracking and push back hard against our investment as a society in both renewable energy and in reducing consumption and waste, further delaying urgently needed energy efficiency and conservation measures.

LNG exports are, in short, the worst possible idea for the environment, for impacted communities, for climate, for public health, for our long-range economic interests, and for our sustainable future.

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