PRESS RELEASE:Shannon LNG driving damaging fracking industry abroadSpeaking today Green Party Energy spokesperson Brian Leddin said:
“Just two weeks after the Global Climate strike highlighted the urgency of transforming our energy system and reducing global carbon emissions the government is determined to continue with new fossil fuel infrastructure on the Shannon estuary, driving international demand.
Government plans to have the project, which would see fracked gas from the United States imported, designated as a Project of Common Interest (PCI) by the EU this Friday 4th October would result in a free-hand to by-pass the conventional planning process. This project will lock Ireland into continued fossil fuel use just as we desperately need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels if we are to stand any chance of meeting our international obligations and mitigating the onset of climate change, and the global chaos that would come with that.
“The problem with fracked gas is that its extraction is leading to the leakage of much higher levels than expected of methane into the atmosphere. Methane is about 87 times more potent a green house gas than carbon dioxide and some scientists have suggested that methane emissions from the fracking industry in the US is leading to the increased warming we are seeing compared to what was expected from previous climate models.
“The government is supporting and pushing the project despite no high level assessment being done to compare it with reasonable alternatives. There has been no assessment of fracked gas in the Irish energy mix. Despite Ireland having declared a climate emergency, and having banned fracking on our soil, in advancing this project and setting Ireland up as a terminal for fracked gas, our government is being duplicitous. In doing so they are not only condoning the pollution of communities in the United States they are condemning our children to a turbulent changed world caused by climate change.”
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