Limerick City and County Council
has confirmed that it has written to An Bord Pleanála to clarify the
length of permission of the Shannon LNG pipeline.
Shannon
LNG Pipeline Expiry Referred to An Bord Pleanála after it was
discovered that Shannon LNG only applied for a 10-year planning
permission in 2008.
Limerick City and County Council
has confirmed that it has written to An Bord Pleanála to clarify the
length of permission of the Shannon LNG pipeline.
An Bord Pleanála is examining a section 5 referral on the Shannon LNG pipeline while legal firm McCann Fitzgerald, acting for Shannon LNG, says that the "Board's
jurisdiction under section 5 does not extend to determining whether a
particular development is unauthorised or whether a particular
permission is extant". McCann Fitzgerald stated that it was "surprised" that Limerick City and County Council had written to the Board to clarify the length of the pipeline approval.
It was a condition of planning consent for the Shannon LNG pipeline, granted in 2009, that "the
development shall be carried out in accordance with the plans and
particulars, including the environmental impact statement, lodged with
An Bord Pleanála on the 14th day of August 2008". However, in those documents supplied by Shannon LNG to An Bord Pleanála in 2008 it stated clearly in its cover letter that it was only "seeking planning permission for this development for a period of 10 years".
Brendan Slattery of McCann Fitzgerald, referring to "the single isolated line in a cover letter", claimed to An Bord Pleanála that "there is no reference to any limitation of duration within any relevant planning document". However, Shannon LNG clearly confirmed in its 2008 schedule
of planning application documentation for the Shannon LNG pipeline that
the Cover Letter itself was indeed one of the planning documents.
If the Shannon LNG pipeline consent expired in 2019, then Shannon LNG
has serious questions to answer regarding claims it made to both An
Taoiseach and the SEM Committee.
On March 31st, 2022, Wes Edens, the CEO of New Fortress Energy - the owners of Shannon LNG - in an open letter to An Taoiseach Micheál Martin, claimed that the Shannon LNG project was “shovel ready” and that “planning approval for the 26km gas pipeline to connect to the GNI grid has been secured”.
Shannon LNG then claimed to the Single Electricity Committee (SEM) in November 2022 that it was “the
most advanced CCGT project in development in the country and by the
time the auction is held in March 2023 we will have: - planning
permission for the 600 MW CCGT - planning permission for a 26km gas
pipeline (as backup to the LNG terminal) with all wayleaves executed -
an executed 220 kv connection agreement for 600 MW MEC”. Subsequently, on April 5th, 2023, the State’s national grid operator EirGrid published
the provisional results of the latest capacity auction for the Single
Electricity Market which indicated that Shannon LNG had won a
provisional agreement for two gas-fired generators capable of
generating 353 megawatts (MW) of electricity in total from EirGrid.
An Board Pleanála has given Safety Before LNG until August 9th
to make any submissions or observations in response to the letter it
received from McCann Fitzgerald on behalf of its client New Fortress
Energy,dated July 19th, 2023.
End.
Notes to the editor
1, The full Shannon LNG Section 5 Referral to An Bord Pleanála can be
viewed here
2. An Bord Pleanála website link to the section 5 on the Shannon LNG pipeline: https://www.pleanala.ie/en-ie/case/317419
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