For Immediate Release
Monday, August 26, 2013
Frack Free Illinois
For Information:
Joyce Good
(312) 420-2236
Terminal planned to ship US gas to foreign countries
Groups Opposed to Sale of Illinois Gas Overseas
The Energy Department recently announced that it has conditionally authorized a natural gas terminal in Lake Charles, LA, which would export domestically produced liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Frack Free Illinois, a grassroots coalition of individuals and environmental organizations, is joining the Sierra Club and other environmental groups in their opposition to the building of terminals which enables the exportation of U.S. gas to other countries. The rush to horizontal hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") has made exporting fracked gas as liquefied natural gas ("LNG") a profitable path for the oil and gas industry, while leaving U.S. consumers on the slippery slope of escalating gas prices, together with the consequences of contaminated land, water and air.
Communities across Illinois, and the country, have been, and will be, subjected to the continued detrimental consequences of fracking for oil and gas including contaminated wells and aquifers from leaking toxins, explosions, increased air pollution such as CO2 and methane gas emissions, and even earthquakes. Fossil fuel drilling, production, and use for energy generation is a huge contributor to greenhouse gases and climate change.
The plans for exporting U.S. gas stand in contrast to the repeated claims for "energy independence" and "cheap gas" by federal government officials and the oil and gas industry. Gas is priced about $10-$13 per thousand cubic foot (Mcf) in Europe and as high as $20 per thousand cubic foot (Mcf) in Asia, as compared to $3-$4 per thousand cubic foot (Mcf) in the U.S. As profit is its goal, and foreign high prices are its lure, the oil and gas industry will look forward to exporting gas for years to come. At the Lake Charles terminal, permission has been given to export up to 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day for 20 years. With the addition of the Lake Charles liquefied gas terminal, the U.S. has now given the green light to exporting 5.6 billion cubic feet of gas per day, as reported by Reuters.
The Lake Charles facility marks the third U.S. liquefied gas terminal for approval, and the second in only three months. This appears to signal the beginning of the race to export gas with nearly two dozen applications for gas export waiting approval. Selling off U.S. gas to foreign countries will not lead to "energy independence."
Frack-Free Illinois urges Governor Quinn, state legislators and the people of this state and nation to take a second look at fracking and the exporting of liquefied frack gas. Do we want Illinois gas to be sold abroad? Do we want our communities suffer the consequences of fracking?
Frack-Free Illinois supports a moratorium on fracking with an independent science-based investigative task force. It advocates moving away from long-term dependence on fossil fuels and instead proposes investment in clean, renewable energy. "At some point we will be forced to turn to alternative, renewable energy. Doesn't it make sense to make that move now, before we do more damage to the environment and to our health. The health of our country is at stake," says Joyce Good, a spokesperson for the group.
###
Posted by the Chicago Greens
