Natural gas so cold it becomes liquid under pressure, proposed for export in Delaware River & Delaware Bay

From the Kallanish Energy News, April 29, 2020

An environmental group has filed a lawsuit in federal court against a proposed pier in the Delaware River in New Jersey for liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers. The suit was filed last week in U.S. District Court in New Jersey by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network.

The suit charges the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should not have approved the $96 million project that includes a 1,600-foot pier and a storage facility in New Jersey’s Gloucester County. The permit had been issued last February 28.

The project at Gibbstown, New Jersey, is being advanced by Delaware River Partners, a subsidiary of New Fortress Energy LLC. Those tankers would load LNG that had been moved about 200 miles by truck and rail from the Marcellus Shale in northeast Pennsylvania under the plan by New Fortress Energy.

The company has gotten a special federal rail permit to be allowed to move LNG by rail in specially designed rail cars.

Construction started last fall at a New Fortress liquefaction plant in Wyalusing, Pennsylvania. It is expected to be operational in late 2020 or early 2021.

New Fortress has plans for a second facility in Pennsylvania. It would be operational in first quarter 2021. Each plant would produce 3.6 million gallons of LNG per day or 2.15 million tons of LNG per year.

In related news, the Delaware River Basin Commission has set a May 11 hearing for an adjudicatory hearing on the project. Hearing officer John Kelly will hear evidence and then decide whether to recommend that the commission uphold or reject its approval of the project last June.

The commission, a governmental body, can accept or reject his recommendation. Critics have argued that the commission did not allow enough time for public comment in approving the project that would allow two tankers to dock at Gibbstown on the Delaware River.

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See also: Critics of LNG Plan Say Army Corps Failed to Assess Impacts Before Issuing Permit | NJ Spotlight, John Hurtle, April 27, 2020

The environmental group Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN) filed a complaint in federal court in New Jersey last week, claiming that the Corps, one of several regulators that must sign off on the project, had violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by not doing an environmental impact study (EIS) on the project on the Delaware River at Gibbstown in Gloucester County, New Jersey.

Transporting LNG via trucks or trains carries unacceptable risks

FROM AN ARTICLE BY JON HURDLE, NEW JERSEY SPOTLIGHT, MARCH 4, 2020

Trial-like proceeding will hear all sides and recommend whether to uphold Delaware River Basin Commission’s approval.

The Delaware River Basin Commission has set up a quasi-judicial hearing on a controversial plan to build New Jersey’s first liquefied natural gas export terminal on the Delaware River, giving opponents a high-profile opportunity to reargue their case almost a year after the project was approved by the interstate water regulator.

The DRBC said the hearing, due to start on April 15 in Mercerville, will include testimony by the project’s developer, Delaware River Partners (DRP) as well as commission staff, and the environmental group Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN), which opposes the project and called last July for a rehearing.

“This announcement is a stunning admission that the DRBC failed to provide a full or fair opportunity for public comment before approving the Gibbstown Logistics LNG export facility,” said Delaware Riverkeeper Network leader Maya van Rossum, in a statement.

The “adjudicatory hearing,” a trial-like proceeding that will include direct- and cross-examination of witnesses by all sides, will take place before a hearing officer — an official from the Pennsylvania Department of State — who will later recommend to the commission whether to uphold or reject its approval of the project last June. The commission will be under no obligation to accept the recommendation.

Some seats will be made available for the public to attend the hearing but the public will not be allowed to speak, the DRBC said.

Former DuPont site in Gloucester County, NJ

Delaware Riverkeeper Network previously argued that the commission didn’t allow nearly enough time for the public to comment on the proposal, which would build a 43-feet deep berth on a former DuPont site at Gibbstown on the Delaware River in Gloucester County. The project would make space for two oceangoing tankers to ship LNG that would be carried by rail from the gas-rich reserves of the Marcellus Shale in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Under an earlier plan, the fuel was to be shipped to Gibbstown in hundreds of trucks. But in December, the federal pipeline regulator, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, approved the use of trains to carry LNG from Wyalusing, PA to Gibbstown, the first route in the nation where shipment of LNG by rail would be allowed. It is unclear whether there will be any truck shipments.

Other fuels that would be shipped via the $95 million dock include butane, ethane, propane and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). There will be no bulk storage and no manufacturing of any of the liquids at the site, DRBC said.

The proposed terminal would be an addition to Dock 1, a deep-water berth on the same site for multipurpose freight shipping such as automobiles and break-bulk cargo (not shipped in containers), that was substantially completed in December 2018.

Issues of public and environmental safety

Delaware Riverkeeper Network and other critics argue that the project would be a risk to public safety because of the highly explosive nature of super-cooled natural gas to be transported in rail tankers about 175 miles through many densely populated areas. They also say it would endanger the health of the Delaware River, and increase demand for fracked gas amid efforts by New Jersey and many other states to reduce their dependence on climate-altering fossil fuels. The environmental group said the hearing announcement shows DRBC now recognizes that it should have given the public more opportunity to comment before approving the project.

Delaware Riverkeeper Network leader van Rossum said it should not have been necessary for her organization to file a legal challenge and obtain expert reports — which will be presented at the hearing — to challenge the DRBC’s approval.

Kate Schmidt, a spokeswoman for DRBC, said the commission gave 14 days’ notice of a June 6, 2019 public hearing on whether to approve the project, more than the 10 days required by commission rules, and written comment was accepted until June 7. The commission approved the project on June 12.

After the upcoming hearing, the hearing officer will submit his findings and recommendations, based on hearing testimony and public written comments, which must be received by April 24, Schmidt said.

‘Highly unusual’ move to reopen case

Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey, said that reopening the public debate over the project was a “highly unusual” move that reflected an inadequate comment period before the approval was issued.

“Better late than never to have a more open public-comment process, but it’s a reflection that the public didn’t get an adequate opportunity to weigh in previously,” he said. “It was a very rushed process that followed the letter of the law but did not follow the spirit.”

Airing the issues before a hearing officer will provide “a measure of independence” to the process, said O’Malley, whose organization also opposes the plan. Even though the commission is not required to accept the hearing officer’s recommendations, any conclusion that the terminal should not go ahead would send a “very powerful message” to the DRBC, he said.

In June last year, the project needed permits from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Coast Guard, Gloucester County, and Greenwich Township, the DRBC said.

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See also: Delaware Riverkeeper appeals state permit for LNG project in Gibbstown, Cherry Hill Courier Post, October 21, 2019

A coalition of environmental groups is fighting plans to ship LNG (liquefied natural gas) from Repauno Port & Rail Terminal on the Delaware River in Greenwich Township. Formerly owned by DuPont Company, the site is now under development by New Fortress Energy and Delaware River Partners as a rail terminal and deep-water port.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein speaks out ...

Article by MARC LEVY, Associated Press, WSAV NBC News 3, January 14, 2020

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The attorneys general of 15 states said this week that they oppose a Trump administration proposal to allow rail shipments of liquefied natural gas, arguing the trains will share tracks with passenger trains and travel through congested areas.

The protesting states included Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where the Trump administration issued a special permit in December to ship LNG by rail.

The rulemaking by the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration stems from Trump signing an executive order in April that, in addition to seeking to speed up oil and gas pipeline projects, directed the transportation secretary to propose a rule allowing liquefied natural gas to be shipped in approved rail tank cars.

In their 18 pages of comments submitted Monday, the states said the Trump administration’s proposed rule would put residents, first responders and the environment at greater risk of catastrophic accidents. The administration failed to adequately analyze those risks and failed to consider the environmental and climate effects of allowing LNG to be shipped in rail tank cars, the states said.

The flammable and odorless liquid would be transported “through densely populated areas, potentially in unit trains of up to 100 tank cars operated by just one person, on the same rail lines used by high speed passenger trains, with inadequate safety precautions,” the states said.

They asked the pipeline administration to withdraw the proposed rule pending the completion of more safety studies and the development of an environmental impact statement.

Federal hazardous materials regulations allow LNG shipments by truck, but not by rail, except for with a special permit.

In December, the Trump administration issued a special permit to a New Fortress Energy subsidiary to ship LNG by rail from northern Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale natural gas fields to a yet-to-be-built storage terminal at a former explosives plant in New Jersey, along the Delaware River near Philadelphia.

From there, the LNG would be exported to foreign markets.

The other objecting states were California, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia.

Unit trains are often 100 RR cars long

Monday was the deadline for comments to be filed.
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See also: Massive oil refinery leaks toxic chemical in the middle of Philadelphia on June 21, 2019