Deadline for Comment to PHMSA re LNG Rail Transport

President Trump issued an Executive Order in April for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to approve rail cars for liquefied natural gas (LNG) transport within 13 months. Two months later, PHMSA issues for public comment a proposed “Special Permit” for rail cars to carry LNG, being driven by an application by LNG exporters (Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) is a subsidiary of New Fortress Energy) that want to export LNG overseas.  The project they are planning to use it for immediately is a deepwater port being built in Gibbstown, NJ, on the Delaware River (for more details on New Fortress Energy and Gibbstown Logistics see link below).

A sign-on letter from groups has already been submitted by Physicians for Social Responsibility. But it’s not too late to call for an extension yourself! Please go to the letter calling for a 90 day extension of public comment linked here. Just cut and paste the document into the PHMSA docket (or write your own) at:  https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=PHMSA-2019-0100-0001

This rush to approval is not only reckless but, once ETP and New Fortress Energy get their permit to use rail cars for LNG transport, it will launch a whole new highly dangerous means of transporting LNG over land to terminals that plan to export, where companies can get a lot more return for their buck, the public’s safety and the environment be damned. The new overseas “market” means more pollution and destruction from increased fracking; more fracked gas processing plants like the LNG liquefaction plant New Fortress Energy wants to build in Wyalusing Twp., Bradford County located hundreds of miles from the proposed export terminal; more export terminals trying to avoid federal regulations; more greenhouse gas emissions and climate crises; more devastating health impacts from the shale gas frenzy; and more communities exposed to the dangers of fire and explosion from derailments and accidents.

Please consider submitting a letter directly to PHMSA saying you call for an extension of the public comment period for this highly dangerous and ill-conceived proposal. We need more time to oppose this harebrained idea of another type of bomb train, like the LNG bomb trucks they are using now, risking disaster as they barrel through communities carrying polluting fracked LNG. You can submit comments on the proposed Special Permit (NO DANGEROUS AND EXPLOSIVE LNG BY RAIL!) at this link as well.

For more information about the New Fortress plan to ship LNG go here.