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For Immediate Release
Press Release October 8th 2021: 

Shannon LNG - Official Petition Against Development Consent for US Fracked Gas Import Terminal in Ireland by New Fortress Energy - Have your say.


'Safety Before LNG' has launched a grass-roots petition inviting signatures from people everywhere against the US fracked gas import terminal proposed in Ireland by New Fortress Energy. Please feel free to add your name using the form below or by clicking here The list of 1,545 signatories was officially lodged with the Irish Planning Authorities on October 22nd, 2021.  This petition will be kept open until the planning consent process is completed.

The list of signatories will be officially lodged with the Irish Planning Authorities by hand on or before the deadline of October 22nd, 2021 and this is the only practical way to be part of this process because online submissions are not accepted. If your group or organisation wants to lodge a more detailed submission, then please send it to us and we can print it out and deliver it by hand before the deadline date also if that suits you better.

Can you also help us to promote this please? This time we are looking for ordinary people as well as groups to add their names and it would be very, very helpful for us to have hundreds of names from the affected communities in the US and worldwide because we do not want Ireland to be an overseas market for US fracked gas. It would also undermine our campaign of support for a call for a global ban on fracking being proposed by Ireland at the United Nations General Assembly on climate-mitigation, public-health, environmental-protection and human-rights grounds.

 

Would you please maybe consider sharing word of this petition on the following posts on Facebook and/or Twitter?

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=4432859480141842&id=1742505752510575

https://twitter.com/SafetyBeforeLng/status/1446058996952092676


 

This will be the only realistic means for ordinary people to make an observation to this so-called Strategic Infrastructure planning application, given that a submission cannot be done online and costs €50 per submission.

 

What is different about this petition is that the comments and names are visible for everyone to see and that makes the process very public.

 

 

Update on the Global Ban

A big thanks to all who helped get over 760 groups worldwide to supported  a call for a global ban on fracking being proposed by Ireland at the United Nations General Assembly on climate-mitigation, public-health, environmental-protection and human-rights grounds.

On May 18th, 2021, the Irish Government published its long-awaited policy statement against the  importation of fracked gas as was agreed in the 'Programme For Government 2020'.  We are delighted with the statement in this historic, world's-first, anti-fracked gas import policy statement that "the Government will work with international partners to promote the phasing out of fracking at an international level" and now want the government to move immediately to implement this new policy by agreeing to propose a resolution calling for a global ban on fracking at the United Nations.  

The policy statement declared that “the highest risk of fracked gas being imported into Ireland on a large-scale would be via liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, if any were to be constructed.” It went on to state that “pending the outcome of the review of the security of energy supply of Ireland’s electricity and natural gas systems, it would not be appropriate for the development of any LNG terminals in Ireland to be permitted or proceeded with”. 

Just over three months later, however, on August 27th, 2021, without waiting for the energy review to be completed,  New Fortress Energy insisted on reapplying for an offshore LNG terminal on the Shannon Estuary in Ireland (called Shannon LNG) which would be used exclusively for the importation of US fracked gas. We think that the company is trying to take advantage of its status as a European-Union-listed Project of Common Interest (PCI) which, under Article 7 of the PCI regulation 347/2013, has the “status of the highest national significance possible and be treated as such in permit granting processes”. This status is due to expire in early 2022.

This application for a US fracked gas import terminal in Ireland  must be stopped as it will undermine our attempts to get Ireland to propose a call for a global ban on fracking at the United Nations General assembly. 

On July 27th, 2021, The Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney TD, made the following written reply  in the Dáil:

“The Programme for Government makes clear that the Government does not support the importation of fracked gas. Following upon a commitment in the Programme for Government, the Government published a Policy Statement on May 2021 which outlines both constraints and opportunities for Government action in this area, including in the context of Ireland's obligations as a Member State of the European Union.



In relation to the United Nations General Assembly it is important that any proposed Resolution garner sufficient Member State support to be passed by a clear majority in the General Assembly. At this time I do not believe from our soundings on the ground that this support currently exists. A failed Resolution would set back progress on this important issue. The work of building support must continue.

Nevertheless, the Government is committed to taking action in ways which are consistent with the proposed Resolution. In the short term, the revision of the European Union’s Gas Directive and Gas Regulation provides an opportunity to build consensus within the EU, itself an important constituency for any work at the UN.

Separately, upcoming climate related events provide an opportunity to advance understanding of international dynamics around this proposal. Such events include the United Nations High-Level Dialogue on Energy in September 2021, the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity to be held in October 2021 (COP15), the Conference of Parties to United National Framework Convention on Climate Change in November 2021 (COP26), the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (date TBC), and the United Nations Ocean Conference to be held in 2022. This will complement Ireland's engagement on the Climate and Security agenda during our term on the Security Council.”

At this point in time, the best way for us to continue “building support” for a global ban on fracking being proposed at the United Nations is to stop the Shannon LNG/New Fortress Energy US fracked gas import terminal from getting development consent in spite of stated Irish Government policy. A win here would send out a message to the entire world that Ireland does not want to be an overseas market for US fracked gas.

We are therefore objecting in the strongest manner possible to any development consent being granted to Shannon LNG on planning, climate-mitigation, public-health, environmental-protection and human-rights grounds and need your support.

 

We need the petition to be seen everywhere please. 

 

Please get back to us  if you have any questions and thank you in advance for any help you can give with this.
 

John McElligott

‘Safety Before LNG’

 



Contact:
John McElligott 
Tel: 087-2804474
[email protected]
www.SafetyBeforeLNG.ie 


 

 




 





            

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