LNG Tanker Ships are Gross Contributors to Global Climate Change

From an Article by Jon Hurdle, New Jersey Spotlight, July 17, 2019

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers divulged new details yesterday about plans for New Jersey’s first export terminal for liquefied natural gas, showing it would be supplied by as many as 15 trucks an hour — around the clock — to fill an ocean-going tanker every two weeks.

The previously unpublished information about the proposed terminal at Gibbstown in Gloucester County, the Army Corps said Tuesday, came from new details it had received about the plan by the developer, Delaware River Partners, since the agency published an earlier notice on the project in April.

The new document said LNG — a super-cooled form of natural gas that can explode if its vapor is mixed with air in an enclosed space — would not be processed or stored on site but would be pumped directly from trucks into ships.

To limit the impact of the heavy truck traffic on residential areas, Gloucester County is proposing a new access road to a port that would be expanded to accommodate the terminal, the document said. The new road would be about 110 feet from the nearest residential area; the terminal’s loading area would be built at least a mile away from those homes.

The developer has also proposed carrying the LNG to the terminal by rail but that idea hasn’t yet been approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Army Corps report said. Until that happens, the Corps said it’s not possible to predict the volume of LNG that would arrive by rail or the number of trains.

Opening markets for fracked Marcellus Shale gas

The Corps, which must approve some aspects of the planned Gibbstown Logistics Center, said there was nothing inaccurate about its first notice, but that it wanted to “expand our discussion of the public interest factors relevant to the Corps of Engineers review” of the project.

But disclosure of the new detail may fuel critics who say that DRP and some government agencies have not been fully transparent about a project that would bring explosive materials to a residential area, and which would stimulate the production of fracked natural gas, boosting climate-changing carbon emissions.

The gas, harvested from Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale would be liquefied at a proposed plant in Bradford County, Pa., built by New Fortress Energy, a LNG company.

The terminal would expand the market for gas from the Marcellus geological formation — one of the biggest reserves in the world — after about a decade in which some of it has been “shut-in” because of a shortage of pipelines or other infrastructure for shipping it to customers.

If built, the Gibbstown facility would be the first LNG export terminal in New Jersey, and would join at least nine others around the country built over the last decade in response to the boom in production of natural gas obtained by fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing.

Critics have accused DRP and some government agencies of covering up the details of their plans, which would result in 360 trucks a day, each carrying 12,000 gallons of LNG, leaving the planned liquefaction plant in northeastern Pennsylvania and arriving in Gibbstown 24 hours a day. The terminal would have the capacity to export 1.67 million barrels of LNG per month.

“New Fortress Energy keeps playing games, and only giving out little bits of information at a time,” said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “Every day we look at this, the project gets bigger and more dangerous.”

‘Supplemental public notice’ seems appropriate

Tittel argued that the Corps acted properly in issuing the new notice because it needed to make the public aware of the new information from the applicant.

Steve Rochette, a spokesman for the Corps’ Philadelphia office, said the new notice arose from conversations with the applicant since the first notice was issued.

“As a result of those conversations, this office felt the public would benefit from a supplemental public notice explaining the project in more detail. This in turn will allow the public to better understand the project and address any concerns that may arise,” he wrote in an email.

In evaluating the application for permits, the Corps said it will consider a range of factors including whether the project would help to meet national and local energy needs; whether dredging and dock construction would affect water quality, and whether those activities would erode shorelines.

DRP’s plans to dredge the Delaware River and construct an extra dock got a green light last month from the Delaware River Basin Commission in the face of criticism from environmentalists that it had not allowed the public the opportunity to comment. The DRBC said this week it is considering a request by the environmental group Delaware Riverkeeper Network to take another look at its approval, and hold a public hearing.

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NOTICE TO RESIDENTS, CONSERVATIONISTS & VACATIONERS

Beware to Delaware Bay, Cape Henlopen State Park, as well as the beaches including Lewes, Cape Shores, Rehoboth, etc. Sediment can become a problem. Fish kills can occur. The increased shipping can interfere with existing activities as the Cape May to Lewes Ferry. DGN

WV-DEP and Army Corps of Engineers neglecting their responsibilities

From an Article by Kate Mishkin, Charleston Gazette Mail, November 22, 2018

Atlantic Coast Pipeline developers can’t cross any stream or river along the pipeline’s 600-mile-long path to build the project, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decided this week.

The Corps districts in Pittsburgh; Norfolk, Virginia; and Wilmington, North Carolina; each wrote nearly identical letters to Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC in Richmond on Tuesday to temporarily suspend work on streams and rivers in each district.

The suspension by the Corps of Engineers follows a November 7th order from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that ordered a temporary halt to the ACP’s “Nationwide Permit 12” in the Corps’ Huntington District of West Virginia.

In that case, lawyers for environmental and citizen groups argued that ACP shouldn’t have that Nationwide Permit 12 because the project would violate two conditions, added to the permit by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. One condition stipulates stream crossings must be finished within 72 hours. The other says structures authorized by the permit cannot impede fish from swimming upstream or downstream.

The method that ACP developers plan to use to build the pipeline across streams and rivers would violate both conditions, the lawyers said.

A panel of judges issued the two-page order, telling ACP to pause construction in the Corps’ Huntington district.

“Because of that order, it is uncertain whether NWP 12 will ultimately be available to authorize work for ACP in West Virginia,” the letters to ACP from the Norfolk and Pittsburgh districts say. The letter from the Wilmington district, instead, questions whether work can continue in North Carolina.

The pipeline is expected to run 600 miles long Northern West Virginia into North Carolina. It’s one of the several pipelines being built in the region to tap into the Marcellus Shale formation.

Several environmental groups consider the Corps’ decision this week a win.

“This signals that when the public is watching, the Army Corps realizes it can’t buck its own rules,” Angie Rosser, executive director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, said in a statement. “Now we’ll see if they agree to changing those rules to accommodate building this pipeline as fast as possible, instead of considering its cumulative impacts on our water.”

In August, a joint examination by the Gazette-Mail and the nonprofit journalism organization ProPublica showed that state and federal regulators were changing their rules to speed pipeline approval and construction when legal issues were raised about the projects.

Jen Kostyniuk, a spokeswoman for the ACP project, said the suspension allows time to resolve permit questions and that it wouldn’t affect the project’s schedule.

“This voluntary suspension only reinforces the incredibly high standard that is being applied to the project,” she said in an email. “To put this in perspective, our voluntary suspension affects less than 15 percent of the project (or approximately 86 miles across the entire project route).”

In each district’s letter, the Corps told ACP to take measures to stabilize work in progress but to stop any construction that’s authorized under NWP 12. The suspension remains in effect until the Corps decides to reinstate, change or pull the permit altogether.

Solidarity Action to STOP the DAPL

Reference: Nov 15 #NoDAPL Day of Action at Army Corps of Engineers

Letter from Mike Tidwell, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, November 12, 2016

Dear Friends,

Just a week before the presidential election, Indigenous leaders and protectors in Standing Rock, North Dakota, called on us to take to the streets this Tuesday, November 15th, in a massive, nationwide day of action to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Now, after Trump’s election, it’s all the more urgent that we answer this call. On November 15th, thousands of people will protest outside of Army Corps of Engineers offices, calling on President Obama to do everything in his power to stop this 1,172-mile, fracked-oil pipeline before he leaves office.

Are you with us? Find an action at an Army Corps of Engineers office near you on November 15th, or sign up to host an action in your city.

Protectors in Standing Rock have faced violent repression for standing in the way of oil industry bulldozers, all to protect their sacred lands, our water, and the climate. Those bulldozers are now getting closer and closer to the Missouri River. But President Obama has the power to put a stop to this pipeline.

Let’s do all we can now to demand that President Obama’s Army Corps rejects the pipeline. Let’s show President-elect Trump that our resistance to fossil fuels will not fade away — not now and not ever.

Are you with us? Click here to join an action near you on November 15th, or sign up to host one in your city. Events in Washington, DC, Baltimore, Norfolk, Annapolis, Richmond, Frederick, Charlottesville, and more are on the map.

We know that if we want to avoid the worst effects of climate change we can’t afford to build a single new pipeline, or drill a single new fracking well or build a single new oil rig. That means no Dakota Access Pipeline. And that means no Atlantic Coast Pipeline or Mountain Valley Pipeline in Virginia. That means no fracking in Maryland, no oil rigs off the coast of Virginia, and no new compressor stations or power plants anywhere in our region. Not a single one.

Whether in North Dakota, Virginia or Maryland, people are saying: “This is our home, and our land, and we’re not going anywhere.”¹

Let’s flood the streets this Tuesday, November 15th, and show that we refuse to back down — we refuse to give up hope. Find (or start!) your local solidarity action here.

>>> For a fossil-free future, Mike Tidwell, Director, Chesapeake Climate Action Network

P.S. We’d like to add a special shout-out to 23 activists who were peacefully arrested outside Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe’s house on October 5th of this year. Those activists had their day in court on November 4th, and will be working together to launch Virginia’s own Pledge of Resistance next week: asking fellow Virginians and climate activists to follow their lead in pledging to commit non-violent civil disobedience if necessary to stop the construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline. By launching this pledge, these brave activists hope to show solidarity with the protectors in North Dakota, letting them know that we are willing to take the same risks right here in our region when and if the time comes.

1. The quote is from a landowner speaking out against the Mountain Valley Pipeline at a recent FERC hearing in Rocky Mount, Virginia.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net