A Pennsylvanian anti-fracking campaigner has travelled to Ireland to plead with our government to block Shannon LNG.
America’s New Fortress Energy is behind proposals for the onshore liquefied natural gas facility with a deepwater jetty, storage tanks and gas-fired power station at Ballylongford, Co Kerry.
We met proud military veteran and former gas worker Raymond Kemble at a Climate Camp attended by scores from across the island on the banks of the River Shannon.
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It was there the imposing man, worn by years fighting fracking, spoke emotionally as he told how his community’s water turned toxic and many lost their health.
And if Ireland accepts LNG from the US, Raymond, who has Cork ancestry, says it will heap even more misery on those living in fracking areas.
He said: “We never had cancer or anything like that before and in one year we had over 13 people diagnosed with cancer... all within a mile of my house.
“I have gone through seven cancer surgeries in a year and a half. They took a tumour out of my brain.. my arm, the top of my heart and the rest was bladder and prostate cancer.
“I found my brother passed away in the bedroom. He was sick before but the contamination made things worse for him.
“That was hard and that’s not counting the other people we just buried.
“A good friend of mine who worked on the same gas pads I worked on, died. He was diagnosed with barium and radiation poisoning.”
Despite repeated calls from families impacted by cancer near fracking wells, the US Department of Health has so far resisted calls for an in depth probe into potential links.
On top of Ray’s health concerns he says the water supply to his house is also unsafe with official tests in 2010 finding uranium, thorium, barium, lithium, large amounts of methane and a range of other contaminants in it.
Now he’s out up to $200 a month trucking in clean water to drink and wash with.
“I was invited to come here to the climate camp because I am the harmed and the victims at the other end of this project,” he added.
“I am here talking about health and human rights [and what’s] being inflicted upon us in Pennsylvania to bring this gas here.
“I want to stop this. It’s the worst thing in the world you could think of.”
Hydraulic Fracturing, or fracking, is banned in Ireland.
But over 1.7 million fracking wells have been drilled in the US to extract natural gas by creating underground cracks with high pressure and chemicals.
The process has been associated with a number of health risks including breathing problems, cardiac and neurological issues, premature birth and carcinogenic chemicals.
New Fortress said in their 2018 registration statement to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission “certain of our suppliers employ hydraulic fracturing techniques” and again in a 2020 document on their own website.
Frack Action director, Julia Walsh, who helped secure a fracking ban in New York state in 2014 says: “The United States is overwhelming using fracked gas to export.
“It’s become a leading world supplier of LNG and the harm it has created, the havoc, the public health nightmare that Ireland and your government rightly banned... are the reasons why that harm should not be inflicted on those of us in the United States.
“We heard about Shannon LNG and the export terminal is proposed near where I live in the Delaware River. We’ve come to work together to stop this.
“The Irish government banned fracking and this is the natural progression of that ban because the gas that will come to Ireland through liquefied natural gas would be from fracking.”
Environmental scientist at the Nature Conservancy, Dr Laura Kehoe, says politicians are not listening to what scientists say.
“I’ve spent so many years writing reports, publishing papers and policy makers aren’t listening.
“My view of the project [Shannon LNG] is that it goes completely against the scientific consensus that we cannot afford any new
fossil fuel projects if we have a chance of staying within 1.5 degrees of global warming.
“The IPCC made that very clear - no new fossil fuel infrastructure and LNG is a fossil fuel gas - it’s methane essentially.
“It’s won’t help with the energy crisis - it will take five years for this to be built.
“What we need to do is invest in renewables and sustainable jobs here.
“The government has banned fracking in Ireland so why would we import it from somewhere else if we understand how dangerous it is to local communities. Our leaders aren’t leading, so we must.”
Cork City councillor Lorna Bogue cycled 70 miles to the climate camp to support LNG protests.
She said: “We had an issue in Cork that is quite similar [in] that a company tried to bring fracked gas through the port of Cork.
“A lot of my constituents stood very strongly against that and I think the two struggles are linked.
“[The government] shouldn’t be engaging in this particular project.”
Green Party MEP Grace O’Sullivan says she has “seen Fianna Fail and Fine Gael speaking openly in favour of the Shannon LNG project” in the European Parliament “despite it being a key demand in the Programme for Government that this would not be supported with public funds”.
“Not only will it take years to construct, this will lock us into fossil fuel contracts for years to come.
“Some have used the war in Ukraine to justify it, yet one of the largest exporters of LNG to Europe is still Russia, while US gas comes from fracked sources that have caused massive damage, especially to indigenous communities.
“Claims that it can be converted for green hydrogen storage do not seem to be based on any evidence.
“Not only that but the area where it is planned is meant to be protected for dolphins and wild birds - again a sign of how weak our environmental protections are without real Marine Protected Areas.”
Ireland’s Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications says “it would not be appropriate for the development of any LNG terminals to be permitted” before the outcome of a review on the security of Ireland’s electricity and natural gas systems later this year.
We asked Taoiseach Micheal Martin if he could be sure all the gas New Fortress Energy hopes to bring to Ireland is not fracked gas.
He said in a statement he would “not comment on any specific project other than to say that LNG that uses fuel that’s not direct from fracking... is consistent with the programme for government”.
“The programme for government is clear that they don’t want LNG supplies from fracking,” he added.
“Personally in that context (that it can be done without fracking) then I think we’d have to give consideration to LNG, given the energy security issue that has arisen from the war.”
He did not respond to questions about how LNG imports fit with Ireland’s COP26 commitments to the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance or supporting a green energy transition and ending direct public support for the unabated fossil fuel energy sector by 2022.
Tanaiste Leo Varadker and New Fortress Energy were also contacted for comment.
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