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Updated
to include Press Ombudsman's decision of October 2020 ruling that Irish
Examiner article by Anne Lucey breached the principles of Truth,
Accuracy and Distinguishing Fact and Comment. A
controversial article published by the Irish Examiner
newspaper has
helped reveal that floating fracked gas import terminals now being
proposed by Shannnon LNG and Cork LNG will not qualify for
fast-track planning at An Bord Pleanala as Strategic Infrastructure,
but must instead be processed by local county councils and multiple
state agencies, adding years to the planning consent process.
Fast-track planning is only allowed for Onshore Terminals, not offshore
terminals called Floating Storage Regasification Units (FSRUs).
The Shannon LNG and Cork LNG projects are owned by US
fracked-gas transporters 'New Fortress Energy' and 'Next
Decade' respectively. These loopholes of approval by multiple State
Agencies, including the CRU, the Foreshore licensing process, the local
authorities and the EPA, must now be covered in the Programme for
Goverment in order to ensure that LNG terminals cannot be allowed to be
built in Ireland and slip through the net of any Programme for
Government policy statement. The controversial article by Kerry-based journalist Anne Lucey,was found by The Press Ombudsman
in October 2020 to have breached Principle 1 (Truth and Accuracy) and
Principle 2 (Distinguishing Fact and Comment) of the Code of Practice
of the Press Council of Ireland.
The
Irish Examiner on June 1st 2020, reported that an
emergency motion proposed by Fine Gael Mayor of Tralee, Councillor Jim
Finucane, was passed by Kerry County Council unanimously, even though
the Meetings Administrator of Kerry County Council confirmed in writing
that no such motion actually took place. And further
investigations on the controversial article have revealed that any
Floating Storage Terminal will not qualify for fast-track
planning.
The Examiner
newspaper intially wrote:
'Last Friday Kerry County
Council backed a proposal put forward by the Mayor of Tralee Jim
Finucane (FG) that the council “fully endorses and supports the Shannon
LNG project". Sinn Fein councillor Robert Beasley seconded the
emergency motion which was carried unanimously.'
going
on to claim:
"The
application will go directly to an Bord Pleanala as it meets the terms
of a piece of infrastructure of strategic importance to the country's
energy supply"
However, the Meetings Administrator of Kerry County Council - Padraig
Corkery - completely contradicted the claims by the Irish Examiner when
he confirmed in writing:
"I
attended the meeting on Friday May 29th,
in my role as Meetings Administrator. There was a full quorum at the
meeting.
I
can confirm that
there were no emergency motions
raised at the meeting.
In
relation to the Shannon LNG matter, Cllr Finucane raised the matter on
the floor under A.O.B. outlining that the proposed future of the
Shannon LNG project, which is currently going through the planning
process with An Bord Pleanala, be left to its own devices and should be
allowed to proceed as a planning application without interference. Cllr
Robert Beasley agreed with Cllr Finucane’s statement. There
was no formal resolution, as it was a statement from Cllr Finucane. As
a result there is no paperwork or documentation relating to
this. Once
the minutes are formally agreed at the next meeting of Kerry County
Council, they will be a matter of public record".
The
Irish Examiner also reported in the same article that the planning
application by Shannon LNG will go "directly to
An Bord Pleanala" even though the Board has not yet ruled
that this is the case. This claim inspired climate activists to investigate further.
We discovered that Shannon
LNG (now owned by New Fortress Energy) has an application a child could answer in 5 minutes sitting with An
Bord Pleanala for over one year requesting a ruling on
whether its newly-proposed US floating fracked gas import terminal (FSRU) on the
Shannon Estuary would be allowed to qualify for fast-track planning
directly with An Bord Pleanala. This status is only given to onshore
terminals and not offshore terminals which an FSRU would be. This will
add years to the planning process as planning consent will have to be
determined initially by the local Kerry County Council and then
approved by multiple State agencies, almost definitely adding years to
any development consent process. The Planning and Development
(Strategic Infrastructure) Act 2006 is very clear that only the
following type of LNG infrastructure can qualify as Strategic
Infrastructure for fast-track planning:
"An
onshore terminal, building or installation, whether above or below
ground, associated with an LNG facility and, for the purpose of this
provision, ‘LNG facility’ means a terminal which is used for the
liquefaction of natural gas or the importation, offloading and
re-gasification of liquefied natural gas, including ancillary services."
Upcoming
US Ban on Fracked Gas Imports to kill off LNG terminals in
Ireland
With
Government formation talks likely to agree to ending the construction
of LNG terminals in Ireland over concern for the climate and
environmental impacts and for the health impacts on affected
communities in the fracking fields of Pennsylvania and Texas, the
reveleations come at a highly-sensitive time. It also explains why Next
Decade never applied for fast-track planning for its proposed FRSU in
Cork Harbour - it knew all along that it did not qualify. Why was
nobody told in Ireland? It should not take over a year for An
Bord Pleanala to reveal that only onshore terminals qualify for
fast-track planning. Where was the transparency? The
Commission for Energy Regulation (CRU) will have to be involved, along
with the EPA and the Foreshore licensing system in conjunction with local
councils. Why is up to volunteer climate campaigners giving freely of their time in the public interest to reveal
information with such long-term consequences for Climate breakdown
instead of our own country's administration - both civic and political - along with its TV and newspaper media?
The vested interests of 'Trade over Everything' is undermining the
democratic process and the work of Government in Ireland. That is now
very clear.
But the Climate Movement has taken the fight to the vested interests.
In
a sign of growing national consensus around the issue, it was revealed
in April that almost half of the TDs elected to the Dail have signed a
pledge stating that they were "opposed to the importation of US fracked
Gas into Ireland via LNG import terminals".
Before the election, in its #Pledge4Climate campaign
environmental NGOS,
'Love Leitrim' , 'Friends of the Earth' and 'Safety Before LNG'
obtained support from at least 193 candidates for the General
election held on February 8th, 2020, for the pledge which stated:
"I am opposed to the
importation of US fracked Gas into Ireland via LNG import terminals. If
elected, I, as a T.D., will work to find a way in the next Dail to
prevent fracked Gas from entering the Irish energy mix via fixed or
floating LNG terminals. I am opposed to fracking in Northern Ireland
.If elected, I, as a T.D., will work constructively in the next Dail to
prevent fracking from taking place in Northern Ireland".
74
of those candidates got elected and this included all the elected T.D.s
from the Labour Party, The Social Democrats, People
Before Profit, The Green Party, Independents for Change, and Sinn Fein, along
with leading elected Fianna Fail and Fine Gael T.D.s Eamon O'Cuiv, Marc
McSharry and Frank Feighan.
These
numbers were boosted by the clear positions against Fracking taken by
Fianna Fail in the Dail on October 3rd, 2019 "in recognition of the health and climate impacts of
exploiting shale gas reserves".
Already,
on October
3rd 2019, the Majority of Ireland's MEPs had told the European
Commission not to allow fracked gas into Ireland via
the Projects of Common Interest list. The Irish MEPs were supporting a
motion co-signed by 44 TDs initiated by Brid Smith of 'People
Before Profit', submitted to the Dail on September 26th, 2019
calling on the Irish Government:
"to remove any project from the proposed list of
Projects of Common Interest that could support the building of an LNG
facility in Ireland that will act as a gateway for fracked gas entering
the Irish energy mix; and − to build support in Europe to prioritise
sustainability criteria in the assessment of candidate PCI projects,
that will address fossil fuel lock in and the long-term impacts of
fracked gas in the European energy mix, given the expected change in
climatic conditions."
On
November 15th, 2019, at the
Youth Assembly on Climate Change held in Dail Eireann, Roisin
Keegan-O'Rourke informed
the House that the Youth Assembly was proposing:
"for
Ireland to ban the importation of fracked gas and invest solely in
renewables"
On
November 27th, 2019, in a signal of Government softening on the issue,
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, speaking in the Dail stated:
"The
Government banned fracking in Ireland, through a Private Members' Bill
introduced by my colleague, Deputy McLoughlin. I am not sure whether we
are in a position to ban the import of fracked gas
from other jurisdictions. I will have to check it out"
On February
12th, 2020 the majority of Irish MEPs (including Fine
Gael's Maria Walsh) voted against the 4th PCI list which
included the proposed Shannon LNG fracked gas import project.
The
Department of Environment has
announced a
major review into the security and sustainability of Ireland's energy
supply but under the outdated
presumption that gas is considered "as
the lowest CO2 emitting fossil fuel" which is pre-judging the
outcome and runs contrary to the accepted scientific testimony at the
Climate Committee meeting last year that importing
fracked gas from the US has a carbon-equivalent footprint 44% greater
than that of the coal of Moneypoint (without
even considering the emissions from the LNG transport itself) . This is
because the future review proposed by the Department does not consider
the most potent emissions from leaked methane upstream - the
non-territorial emissions - from fracking and is only comparing the
emissions released when coal and gas are burned. That is called gaming
the system by setting the parameters of the study to get the outcome
the Department wants and that is why political oversight of climate
assessments are necessary in order to have evidence-based decision
making in a transparent manner.
The assessment
of Methane Emissions promised by the European Commission for the 5th
PCI list of projects in two years time is also gaming the system and
pre-judging the assessment of fracked gas imports by only assessing the
emissions taking place in the European Union and not the full
life-cycle, non-territorial emissions from US fracked gas imports.
Over 150
NGOS and academics have so far supported our proposed LNG
energy policy statement wording to be included in the Programme for
Government which is:
"Liquefied
Natural Gas
The
new Government is not supportive of new fossil fuel infrastructure in
the form of LNG import terminals that could facilitate the entry of
unconventional liquefied natural gas into the Irish energy mix. Such
imports may create a functional interdependence between Irish energy
consumption and global warming due to the high levels of
non-territorial methane emissions linked to the exploitation of global
shale gas resources."
With
two ongoing
high-court legal challenges against the proposed Shannon LNG fracked
gas import plan with no assessment of the climate impacts, a
national consensus is building that there is no longer any tolerance
for the importation of fracked gas into Ireland, given that we have
already banned fracking in Ireland due to the negative health and
climate impacts.
On
April 30th, 2020, the European Court of Justice found that Shannon
LNG's planning permission was invalid.
This means that Shannon LNG will have no valid
planning permission after the ECJ findings are confirmed by the
European Court of Justice and the Irish High Court. It's
permission for the pipeline from Tarbert to Foynes expired after 5
years.
Notes to Editor:
Letter from Kerry County Council:
From: Padraig
Corkery <padraig.corkery@kerrycoco.ie>
Sent: Monday
8 June 2020 15:16
To: Safety
Before LNG SLNG <safetybeforelng@hotmail.com>; FOI
<FOI@kerrycoco.ie>
Subject: RE:
AIE Request on Shannon LNG comments at May 31st 2020 Kerry County
Council meeting
Mr
McElligott,
I
refer to your AIE request.
If
I might possibly speed things up it might not be necessary to make a
formal application.
I
attended the meeting on Friday May 29th,
in my role as Meetings Administrator. There was a full quorum at the
meeting.
I
can confirm that there were no emergency motions raised at the meeting.
In
relation to the Shannon LNG matter, Cllr Finucane raised the matter on
the floor under A.O.B. outlining that the proposed future of the
Shannon LNG project, which is currently going through the planning
process with An Bord Pleanala, be left to its own devices and should be
allowed to proceed as a planning application without interference. Cllr
Robert Beasley agreed with Cllr Finucane’s statement.
There
was no formal resolution, as it was a statement from Cllr Finucane. As
a result there is no paperwork or documentation relating to this.
Once
the minutes are formally agreed at the next meeting of Kerry County
Council, they will be a matter of public record.
I
hope that this is of assistance. If you still wish to continue with
your AIE request please do not hesitate to contact me.
Regards
Padraig
Corkery
Access
to Information on the Environment Officer
Kerry
County Council
T:
066-7183720
Full Examiner Article
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