The future of a major liquified natural gas facility proposed for northeastern Pennsylvania was thrown into question Monday after its developer settled a legal challenge brought by environmental activists.
A subsidiary of New Fortress Energy Inc. agreed to pull the plug on its proposed LNG plant in Wyalusing — at least for now — in an agreement with a coalition of environmental groups that filed suit seeking to overturn the company’s air emissions permit.
The $800 million plant was intended to liquify million of gallons of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale gas field per day, with the liquified gas to be transported by rail or truck more than 175 miles (281 kilometers) to a proposed New Fortress export terminal in Gibbstown, New Jersey, along the Delaware River near Philadelphia. From there, the LNG would have been loaded onto ships for overseas delivery.
PennFuture, the Clean Air Council and the Sierra Club took legal action to block the project. Under a settlement announced Monday, a New Fortress subsidiary agreed to halt construction and allow its air emissions permit from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to lapse. If it wants to restart the project, the company will need to begin the state permitting process over again, according to settlement documents.
The company’s intentions weren’t immediately clear. A message was sent to New Fortress seeking comment.
Environmental groups had raised concern about air and water pollution near the proposed Wyalusing facility, as well as the risk of catastrophe during transport to New Jersey by either truck or train. New Fortress had obtained a special federal permit from the Trump administration to move the liquified gas by rail; the company applied for a renewal of that permit in November.
In its renewal application, the company said its plan to export LNG from Pennsylvania’s gas fields had been delayed by the “pandemic, massive supply chain and workforce disruptions, and widespread economic and political uncertainties.”
Abigail Jones, a vice president at PennFuture, said the settlement with New Fortress, which was reached Friday, could wind up killing the company’s planned New Jersey export terminal as well.
“By halting the construction of the Wyalusing facility, we’re hopefully eliminating all of those impacts across the two states from this New Fortress energy export scheme,” she said.
Industry officials decried the environmental groups’ efforts.
“Unnecessary regulatory hurdles and frivolous lawsuits hinder consumer access to clean, affordable natural gas,” said Marcellus Shale Coalition President David Callahan. “The worldwide need for U.S. natural gas exports has never been more critical.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
—-
This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.
Environmental activists,,,,,,obviously bought and paid for by Putin and the Iranians to keep us energy poor and unable to supply our European allies with displaced Russian oil and natural gas, who will be forced into Russian energy dependency, and then economic dependency and ultimately military dependency. Where is our FBI and CIA? Am I the only one who sees the connections? The imaginary world threats to the environment are about as real as the need for COVID masks. Healthy clear-thinking nations like healthy clear-thinking people don’t need to be concerned, and definitely not have their entire way of life, and personal and national security destroyed trying to keep the great deceptions alive, that only serve to strengthen our enemies here and abroad. Follow the back back to the un-American activities that reveal the undermining of our very American security and formerly working institutions.
FIND OUT whom everyone of those activists are and PERMANENTLY CUT OFF their homes, from all deliveries of gas, and electricity produced BY GAS, Coal or oil!..
dam the torpedos full speed ahead on the destruction of american energy.
environmental nazis have got to be stopped before the kill us all
I hope these chumps from PennFutures and the Clean Air Council have other ways to get natural gas for those of us who heat our homes and cook with it! Talk about another squandered opportunity – this gas could have been easily and safely transported across the Atlantic to countries that currently rely on the Russians.
Environmental groups had raised concern about air and water pollution.
They had to turn to this since all their lies about Global warming and Climate Change have been disproven. Sorry once you lie about things your organization can NO LONGER be believed about anything your leaders with mush for brains tell us. To many lies and altered data.