'Safety Before LNG' is congratulating local T.D Jimmy Deenihan for organising the first ever public seminar entitled "Future Opportunities for Energy Generation from Renewable Resources in the Shannon Estuary Region", describing it as the first step in the right direction towards looking at the bigger picture of an energy hub on the Shannon Estuary and possible viable alternatives to the Shannon LNG project.
 
The Argentinean and Munster rugby player and President of Rosario BioEnergy, Frederico Pucciariello,  told the packed session that it was "the wrong decision to keep going in fossil energy".
 
CEO Carlos Temboury of Endesa Ireland, the new owners of the Tarbert power station, unveiled its plans to convert the power station to Natural Gas, which will, however, see the output of the station drop from 620MW output to 300MW.
 
Notably absent from the seminar was Shannon LNG, fuelling speculation that the American-owned multinational will use its considerable political and financial clout to oppose any other sources of renewable energy in the area that would reduce the country's dependence on the LNG fossil fuel it hopes to import to the Estuary. Renewable wind, wave and tidal energy projects would also pose a direct threat to the viability of the gas-fired power station Shannon LNG plans to build adjacent to the proposed LNG terminal, not least because of the direct challenges posed by limited grid capacity in the region.
 
The 'Safety Before LNG' group said that the penny is finally dropping that Shannon LNG does not have the regions interests at heart, comparing Shannon LNG's attempt at a fossil fuel stranglehold of energy supply in the region to the folly of the M50 toll bridge. They say they will build the LNG terminal for free but, like the M50 toll bridge, it is the Irish people who will pay for it in the long run many times over.
 
The taboo of not questioning the logic of the Shannon LNG project has finally been broken by a local TD in the heartland of Tarbert. Maybe now that a crticial assesment of the logic of the Shannon LNG project  is possible the real debate can begin. It would be madness to build an LNG terminal without seriously considering the alternatives.
 
The debate proved that the various energy proposals for the estuary cannot be processed individually but require joined-up strategic planning which is not currently the case - especially with the existing problem of grid capacity constraints.


Notes to Editor:

Brochure for Seminar: