Shale Gas -- a Future of Dependence and LNG

Contrary to the folk tales the gas companies spin, shale gas development is not about energy independence, increased jobs, or protection from climate change – shale gas development is about profits for the gas companies regardless of the harms or costs to the United States of America and us, as citizens.  It is important not to be fooled by the rhetoric of the gas drilling industry.

Dominion Cove -- from their website.
Not in our watershed.

Currently there are at least 15 applications for liquefied-natural-gas (LNG) export facilities in the U.S. pending before the federal government.[1]  These applications, along with already approved exports, would have the capacity to move over 40 percent of the U.S. annual production of natural gas to foreign countries.[2]  The gas companies want the exports overseas because they can sell the gas for more than 4 times the price as they can capture here in the U.S[3] and at present there is a glut of gas in this country and so unless the industry sells it overseas they won’t get their immediate cash sale reward. 

Expert reports and data demonstrate that while LNG exports generate generous profits for the gas drillers and export companies, all other sectors of our country’s economy are in decline.  In other words, LNG exports only benefit the gas industry.

Similarly, LNG exports, while creating some jobs in the gas industry, many temporary, creates a net job loss effect for the country.  In fact, LNG exports could result in the net loss of as many as 270,000 jobs per year in our country.[4]

The Environmental Cost

It is almost daily that new research emerges showing the harms of shale gas for our communities, our country and our earth.  Among the most recent scientific findings is that as much as 9% of the methane[5] -- one of the most potent greenhouse gases known to man -- produced while drilling for gas is lost to the atmosphere.  That 9% coupled with all the methane emitted during the transport of gas through pipelines, storage and use of the gas means that shale gas is a more potent contributor to climate change than any other fossil fuel – 21 to 33 times more potent than carbon dioxide if you look over a 100 year period; if you look over the next 20 years when it is the most crucial that we reduce damaging emissions it is over 105 times more potent.[6]

The unparalleled level of harm to drinking water, air quality, food supplies, and people’s health that result from ongoing and increasing levels of drilling and fracking for shale gas bring high price tags for the United States economy and taxpayers.  Not only do our communities lose out on life’s basic needs – air, water, food and health – but we as taxpayers have to pay the upfront and long-term financial burden of these harms, including the necessary clean up and health care costs. 

The deforestation, land compaction, wetlands destruction, and increased earthquake potential inflicted by shale gas development means increased flooding and flood ravaged homes and communities; it means increased erosion of public and private lands; it means the fear and harm of an earthquake where it happens; it means lost fishing, hunting, boating, birding and all the jobs they generate.  And of course someone has to pay for all this harm – that someone is you and me in the form of emergency services, taxes, hazard mitigation, and more national debt.

Transforming our country into one dependent on shale gas instead of oil and coal brings with it a hefty price tag – by some estimates it will cost as much as $700 billion.[7] Recent estimates from the United States Geological Survey of the volume of undiscovered Marcellus Shale gas that may be recoverable is an average 84 trillion cubic feet.[8]  At the current U.S. consumption rate of 24 trillion cubic feet per year[9], chasing after this gas, and incurring all of the harm shale drilling and fracking brings, will only give an additional 3 ½ years of supply.  Other estimates that include gas which is proved, probable and recoverable calculate all U.S. natural gas as supporting only 11 to 21 years of energy at this consumption rate.[10] The timeline for infrastructure replacement gets further shortened as LNG exports increase.   Isn’t it just smarter to pay this bill once?  And put in place the infrastructure needed for sustainable energy sources like solar, wind, geothermal and so on?

Investing in the transformation of our national energy focus to one that is based on drilled and fracked shale gas also means that we are not investing in sustainable energy technology.  And so while the world will be wisely racing ahead of the United States in developing the technology and manufacturing facilities necessary to create and supply this permanent energy source, the U.S. will be falling miserably behind.  And in just a few short decades, when the shale gas is gone, we will find ourselves more dependent than ever on foreign sources of energy – this time the technology needed for a sustainable energy supply. 

The gas drilling industry is not interested in energy independence, addressing climate change, growing jobs or improving our economy; the gas drilling industry, including the pipeline and export companies, are interested in growing their own profits.  We must not be fooled by the rhetoric or well paid advertisements – when we rely on the facts, science and reality it is clear, there is no place for LNG exports or the shale gas development it supports.  Sustainable energy and increased efficiency must not be just our future, but our present as well.

• Congress is deciding right now what to do about LNG exports.  Write your congressional representative today.  Tell them you don’t want them to support LNG exports because doing so hurts our economy, jobs, the health of our kids, communities and environment, and prevents us from becoming the leaders we should be in sustainable energy technology and manufacturing.

Originally written by me, Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, as guest blogger for Maria Rodale, CEO of Rodale, posted at http://www.mariasfarmcountrykitchen.com/.

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[1] See North American LNG Import/Export Facilities, Office of Energy Projects.  http://ferc.gov/industries/gas/indus-act/lng/LNG-proposed-potential.pdf

[2] See North American LNG Import/Export Facilities, Office of Energy Projects.  http://ferc.gov/industries/gas/indus-act/lng/LNG-proposed-potential.pdf & Natural Gas Consumption by End Use, Independent Statistics and Analysis, U.S. Energy Information Administration, http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/ng_cons_sum_dcu_nus_a.htm

[3] Natural Gas Overview:  World LNG Prices, http://www.ferc.gov/market-oversight/mkt-gas/overview/ngas-ovr-lng-wld-pr-est.pdf

[4] Will LNG Exports Benefit the United States Economy, Synapse Energy Economics Inc, January 23, 2013

[5] Methane Leaks Erode Green Credentials of Natural Gas, Nature International Weekly Journal of Science, Jan. 2, 2013.  See also R. Howarth, D Shindell, R. Santoro, A. Ingraffea, N. Phillips, A Townsend-Small, Methane Emissions from Natural Gas Systems, Background Paper Prepared for the National Climate Assessment, Reference number 2011-0003, Feb. 25, 2012.

[6] R. Howarth, D Shindell, R. Santoro, A. Ingraffea, N. Phillips, A Townsend-Small, Methane Emissions from Natural Gas Systems, Background Paper Prepared for the National Climate Assessment, Reference number 2011-0003, Feb. 25, 2012; R.W. Howarth, R. Santoro, A. Ingraffea, Methane and the greenhouse-gas footprint of natural gas from shale formations, Climatic Change, June 2011, Volume 106, Issue 4, pp 679-690.

[7] The Facts on Natural Gas, An Energy Policy Based on Natural Gas Would Leave Us Running on Empty, Water Defense, http://waterdefense.org/content/facts-natural-gas

[8] U.S. Geological Survey, USGS Releases New Assessment of Gas Resources in the Marcellus Shale, Appalachian Basin, Press Release dated 8/23/2011.

[9] Natural Gas Consumption by End Use, Independent Statistics and Analysis, U.S. Energy Information Administration, http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/ng_cons_sum_dcu_nus_a.htm

[10] “What the Frack? Is there really 100 years’ worth of natural gas beneath the United States?” by Chris Nelder.  Dec 29, 2011.  See also “Top Three Reasons Cheap Natural Gas Won’t Kill Renewable Energy”, By Stephen Lacey, Feb 21, 2012.

Countdown 11 – Getting Action & Standing Together on March 6

It has been a difficult couple weeks for the communities of the Upper Delaware River watershed, and beyond, where the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company has been cutting a path for its Northeast Upgrade Project (NEUP).  Chainsaw gangs have been invading the forests, private properties and communities in order to do the tree felling which is the first step in their forced pipeline project.

Gifford Pinchot in the trees

In response, residents have been rising up – young and old – rural and urban.  Protests, vigils, rallies, blockades, watch-dogging the cutters, marches, as well as thousands of calls and emails to decisionmakers,  all  have been a focused commitment of our watershed community in order to protect the communities and mature forests under attack by Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company. “Gifford Pinchot”,  carrying forth his family’s honorable and long-standing commitment to protecting forests and trees, climbed up into the trees, to valiantly challenge the tree cutters and protect what piece of the forest he could.  Eventually the pipeline company forced him down – after 9 days. But his commitment to protecting the trees is honorable.

Meanwhile strategic  legal actions of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network grind on, as does the ongoing effort to prevent the Army Corps from issuing a freshwater wetlands permit the project needs.

More vocal and visible is the ongoing effort to demand the Delaware River Basin Commission  take the action it legally and morally should with regards to the NEUP and all pipeline projects.  Among the efforts building towards securing action by the DRBC, and focused on getting that action at their March 6th meeting were the following:

1. On February 15 the Delaware Riverkeeper Network filed a hearing request – challenging the Executive Director’s determination that the DRBC would not review the TGP NEUP project for its cuts through the woods, wetlands and streams.  (http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/resources/Letters/DRBC_NEUP_Hrg_Reqst&Attach_2.15.13.pdf)
2. On March 1, 67 organizations, religious, labor?, community and environmental, filed a renewed petition urging the DRBC to exercise its legal authority over all pipelines, including the 13 we know the pipeline companies are pursuing as well as those yet to come.  (http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/resources/PressReleases/Pipeline_Petition_3-01-2013.pdf)
3. A letter was sent on March 1, demanding that the DRBC take action on these two requests at its March 6^th meeting to be held in West Trenton – and made clear that a failure to act was a conscious choice not to act that would not be acceptable to the people.  The pipelines are here and coming – a decision not to act is a choice to allow ongoing devastation and the forward march of the pipeline invaders. (http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/resources/PressReleases/Cover_Petition_Submission_%20to_DRBC_3.1.2013.pdf)

Recall in December, when there were similar but different pipeline requests that had been placed before the Commissioners and they suddenly, with no opportunity for public comment, a public hearing, and with no advance public notice whatsoever – suddenly voted against taking action.  We are not going to make the same mistake of trusting that the DRBC will treat the public with equity and fairness and give us an opportunity to be heard, in a timely fashion, before they render decisions that hurt us.  (For video to remind what happened:  http://youtu.be/QdjF8VDOYsg)

And so on March 6 we are asking you to come to the DRBC’s meeting and help us be heard before the Commissioners take a vote, or before they end the meeting without addressing the issue at all. Bring your friends, take off work, call in sick – join us for this important day for our water, air and communities.  We need you there.    

People, communities, woodlands, wetlands, streams and the Delaware River are being hurt.  

People are taking action, thank goodness.  But we need you to join the effort, if you are not already engaged and we ask that you get your friends engaged too.17 million people rely on the Delaware River Basin for their water – we need more folks to speak out and stand up and you have the power to make that happen – we don’t have the multi-million dollar budgets of the fossil fuel industry but we do have our voices and bodies. 

There are 4 ways you can help right now:

1) Sign the Citizens Petition that we will submit on March 6th at the next DRBC meeting & share it with your friends on Facebook:  http://tinyurl.com/DRBC-Stand-Up    

2) Take a day and make your voice heard on this critical issue on March 6th at 12:15 in West Trenton— speak directly to the DRBC Commissioners or help us pack the room and support others who will be speaking:  http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/about/event.aspx?Id=333

Cuts as seen from the sky

3) Send an email to urge DRBC to take immediate action on the upriver pipeline Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company/Kinder Morgan is imposing upon us.  Our neighbors up river are suffering and need our help to magnify their voice and get DRBC to act today:  http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/act-now/urgent-details.aspx?Id=139

4) Sign the Pledge of Protection to let decisionmakers know that you are among the growing number of people willing and wanting to stand in defense of our River and all the communities that depend upon it, its waters, watershed, streams and irreplaceable ecosystems.  http://www.protectdelriv.org

Countdown to Stop a Pipeline 10 – Pipeline Company Rushes in to Cut the Forest – Citizens Stand in Protest

Less than 24 hours after FERC approval was granted for tree clearing of “Pipeline Loop 323” that would cut through the Delaware River Watershed, Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) chainsaw crews, arriving in trucks with Wisconsin license plates, began invading the forests and cutting thousands of 70-year old trees to make way for the Northeast Upgrade Pipeline project (NEUP).  The NEUP is being constructed to carry fracked shale gas from drilling zones in Pennsylvania across into New Jersey and on to other markets. 

TGP clearly rushed its tree clearing plans in order to avoid any possibility that they might be stopped by the efforts of citizens to get the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to step in and require a DRBC review and docket before the project could proceed within the boundaries of our watershed.

 

Why would TGP be so fearful? 

The past two weeks the Delaware Riverkeeper Network along with a rising tide of concerned citizens have been demanding their intervention and we are on solid legal and moral footing when doing so.

The DRBC Rules of Practice and Procedure require DRBC review and docketing for pipeline projects that “pass in, on, under or across an existing or proposed reservoir or recreation project area as designated in the Comprehensive Plan.”  The NEUP is one such pipeline project -- it passes through the Delaware State Forest and High Point State Park, both Comprehensive Plan areas.  Therefore DRBC's obligation to conduct a review that considers impacts on water resources is clear, and mandatory.  

DRBC has acknowledged its failure to apply this element of the Rules of Practice and Procedure (i.e. with regards to the passage of pipelines through Comprehensive Plan areas) for two other upriver pipeline projects — namely the TGP 300 Line (of which the NEUP is a part) and the 1278 Columbia Line.  

In a letter dated January 30, 2013, DRBC recognized its failure to apply this Comprehensive Plan provision to those two projects.  Its remedy is to apply an after-the-fact review and docket for the projects.  But I and the Delaware Riverkeeper Network have made it clear, this review must be applied to the NEUP as well—a review that does not have to be after-the-fact but can happen now before the pipeline is installed. 

The review that led to DRBC’s revelation of its legal error began well after DRBC refused such review of the 300 Line, the 1278 Line and the NEUP, and so it clearly applies equally to all three. (To see the DRBC Jan 30 letter and my immediate response:  http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/resources/Letters/DRBC_NEUP_Docket_Reconsider_1.31.13.pdf) 

In addition, DRBC's decision to review the TGP 300 Line necessarily applies to the NEUP because the NEUP is a part of that project – the NEUP does not stand alone here. 

In two letters, the DRBC has attempted to say it has performed its legal obligations on the NEUP because it issued a water withdrawal docket for the project in July, 2012.  While a water withdrawal docket was approved by the DRBC for the NEUP, the passage of that water withdrawal docket does not displace the DRBC’s legal obligation to review the many aspects of a project that invades Comprehensive Plan areas.   This would be like a state agency saying that because they issued a wetlands-fill permit for a project they don’t also have to permit it for discharging massive amounts of pollution to the air – they are different issues required by different parts of the agency’s laws and so fulfilling one doesn’t get the agency off the hook for fulfilling the other.

And there is a very easy path for the DRBC to remedy all this as it applies to the NEUP.  There are two provisions in that July 2012 water withdrawal docket it issued for the NEUP which allow it to re-open the permit to fix things when necessary, including when they have made a mistake or get new information that demonstrates a project will harm the water resources of our watershed and communities. 

Ø  Under one of these provisions the DRBC “reserves the right to amend, alter or rescind any actions taken hereunder in order to insure proper control, use and management of the water resources of the Basin.” 

Ø  Under the other provision, “The Executive Director may modify or suspend this approval or any condition thereof, or require mitigating measures pending additional review, if in the Executive Director’s judgment such modification or suspension is required to protect the water resources of the Basin.”

The water resources of the Delaware River Basin are clearly suffering here – and will suffer dramatic and unnecessary harm if the DRBC does not step in and exercise its legal authority to do all it can to avoid such harm – and there is a lot it can do. 

Citizens and organizations from around the region are joining us in our call for the DRBC to act.  Please send your email to the DRBC and all its Commissioners today.  http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/act-now/urgent-details.aspx?Id=139

March 6 is their next meeting where the DRBC Commissioners can instruct the Executive Director, Carol Collier, to intervene if she cannot find the courage to do so on her on.  So please plan to take a day from your life to join us on March 6, the day the DRBC will have the chance to begin to make this right.  We won’t be able to get the 70-year old trees and the fully healthy forest back, but there is a lot that can be done to avoid more harm and to fix the damage already inflicted.

And please know, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and our colleagues including the NJ Highlands Coalition and the NJ Sierra Club, continue to press the legal actions we have in the works to find some protection from this project, and to set strong precedent for all future pipeline projects here and across the nation.

An outdoor rally was held on February 18 in Montague, NJ where an 87-year old resident is anguished by the destruction inflicted by the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company who took his land through eminent domain.  See video interview here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEthCvQxKi4&list=UUBxNaY3MzWj0RFZVQSTTrhw&index=1

And take a look at the release put out by citizens working to blockade the pipeline:  http://www.notennesseepipeline.blogspot.com/ and to see what else might be in the works.

Pipeline On the Move - One Last Chance to Stop the Chainsaws -- Countdown Blog #9

Despite setbacks this week, there is still hope for the forests, trout streams and privately protected woodlands to keep standing and stay healthy while our legal challenges and other battles against the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company's Northeast Upgrade Pipeline Project (TGP NEUP) wage on.

But We Need Your Voice and Those of your Friends to Stop the Chainsaws

This has been a tough week for legal battles that were aimed at halting Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company's (TGP) chainsaws from beginning cutting through beautiful pristine elder forests, heating up pristine trout-loving streams and scarring the private lands that so many have worked so hard to protect.  But it is still not too late.  So before I tell the legal story – please take a moment now to:

1. Pick up the phone and make 2 important phone calls to DRBC (609-883-9500 ext 0 or ext 200) and the Army Corps (215-656-6502) to tell them “reopen the DRBC NEUP docket and stop the project while you do the necessary review”. 
2. Then write an email with a click here: http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/act-now/urgent-details.aspx?Id=139 .
3. Visit our Facebook page to share the news and urge others to act. 

These 3 actions will take less than 10 minutes of your family’s precious time but could make the world of difference for some of the cleanest habitats of the Delaware River watershed that we want to protect for our young ones. 

Back to the legal jungle that has unfolded - We began the week with a decision by the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) acknowledging that they were wrong when DRBC rejected the many requests that it review the Tennessee Gas 300 Pipeline project and Columbia 1278 pipeline project before they were installed.  Acknowledging this grave mistake, the DRBC made the decision to go back and review those projects in the context of granting them a docket.  This gives us a chance to secure needed restoration of as much of the devastation done by these pipeline projects as possible.  That was the good news.  (To learn more:

http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/resources/PressReleases/PR_DRBC_300&1278_lines.pdf

But the DRBC then proceeded to reject multiple requests to recognize that the same error that was made for the TGP 300 pipeline and 1278 Columbia pipeline was also made with regards to the TGP NEUP.  Turning around this wrongheaded position is where your phone calls, emails and faxes to DRBC and Army Corps are now critical.  So please, take the three actions i began with to demand that the DRBC revisit the TGP NEUP docket it issued and take a look at the devastating issues a cut through the Upper Delaware recreational and other lands will cause.  Our action alert at: http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/act-now/urgent-details.aspx?Id=139  provides all the details. 

And remember, the Army Corps has an important position on the DRBC, representing the voice of the President.  They need to know that we want the President’s vote on the DRBC to represent the people, not the gas drillers and pipeline industry.  They need to use their position with the DRBC to urge the reopening of the DRBC docket. 

(For the details of the back and forth letters this week between Delaware Riverkeeper Network and the DRBC: 

http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/Documents/DRBC_Review_Request_2_1.31.13.pdf

http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/Documents/DRBC%20PB%20Ltr%20to%20MvRossum%20DRN%20re%20TGP-NEUP%2002-01-13.pdf

http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/Documents/Ltr_to_Collier_re_TGP_NEUP_2.4.13.pdf  )

This week also Judge Mariani, a federal district judge in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, issued an order granting TGP’s request for a preliminary injunction to prevent the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) from reviewing challenges brought by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and the Responsible Drilling Alliance to three state permits that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued to the TGP NEUP.  While we can still press our challenge to the Pennsylvania-issued permits for the NEUP, we now have to initiate that legal action in federal court as opposed to state court -- that means starting our legal action anew.

(To learn more:  http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/resources/PressReleases/PR_Middle_District_Injunction.pdf  )

     That federal court decision was quickly followed up by  an order issued by another federal court, this time the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, denying the emergency motion for stay filed by Delaware Riverkeeper Network, New Jersey Highlands Coalition, and the NJ Sierra Club, to enjoin the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s order allowing construction to proceed on the NEUP while we challenge the FERC decisions that are allowing the project to move forward. The Court’s order stated only that “Petitioners have not satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending court review.” 

(To learn more:  http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/resources/PressReleases/PR_DC_Injunction_decision.pdf  )

It is excruciatingly disappointing that the federal courts have rewarded the gamesmanship of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the TGP by denying our efforts to keep the chainsaws from cutting and put the project on hold until the legal challenges which have been legitimately brought can be seen to completion.  It is clear to me that FERC, the Pennsylvania DEP, the DRBC and TGP have avoided, violated and undermined the state and federal laws that should be protecting us from the harms of the TGP NEUP and other pipeline projects.  The agencies are supposed to protect and serve the public and the environment; but it seems that at every turn they are protecting and serving the pipeline companies and gas drillers to only exacerbate the drilling frenzy devastating our neighbors to the west living in industrial zones and seeing their public lands cut down for the shale gas drillers.  

TGP has now asked FERC that by February 11 it give the permission TGP needs to begin tree felling in the Delaware River Watershed for the project.  This means the DRBC still has time to act and the Army Corps can help pressure and do the right thing too.  Please make your voices  heard now to the DRBC and its Commissioners who may be listening.  

DRBC has acted before in the 11^th hour, last time to stop shale gas development in our watershed.   With your voice, we could make that happen again, this time for this critical pipeline.  

To learn how to email, fax and phone call now visit our action center and write an email to all commissioners with a few clickshttp://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/act-now/urgent-details.aspx?Id=139

And please stay tuned to learn of more you can do if they don’t listen to our voices.  We thank you for collectively being the voice of the forests, fish and streams that are in the path of the chainsaws.  Your voice matters now more than ever.