FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
March 12, 2013
Contact
Jenny Chang, jenny.chang@sierraclub.org,
202-495-3020
Major Green Groups Sends Joint Letter to Obama to Take a Timeout on Natural Gas Exports
WASHINGTON, DC-The Center for International Environmental Law, Clean Water
Action, Earthjustice, Earthworks, Environment America, Friends of the Earth,
League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society has sent a letter
to President Obama strongly pushing for a timeout on natural gas exports until
critical national economic, environmental, and trade concerns are thoroughly
analyzed and carefully addressed.
The letter to the Obama Administration comes on the heels of the recent public
comment period to the Department of Energy (DOE), who commissioned NERA
Consulting to conduct a study of the impacts natural gas exports would have on
the nation’s economy. DOE is currently reviewing proposals for 16 export
facilities. If all of these facilities were approved and developed, they
would export a volume of gas equal to almost half of the natural gas currently
produced in the US.
Sierra Club and a number of allied groups also filed extensive technical
comments on the NERA economic study, stating it is incomplete, extremely
flawed, and favors the interests of dirty fuel investors over those of the
majority of Americans.
In the letter to the President, the groups highlighted shared concerns that
natural gas exports will raise domestic energy prices, disproportionately
harming the middle class and manufacturing, while further exacerbating the
climate crisis and leading to more dirty and dangerous fracking and drilling on
our nation’s lands.
The expansion of drilling and fracking will further pollute our air, water and
put the health and safety of our communities at additional risk. Expanded
drilling will also substantially increase emissions of methane, which is a
powerful climate disrupting pollutant that puts the public at risk of worsening
climate change. In spite of the many environmental risks, however, DOE has
failed to undertake a comprehensive analysis of the national environmental
impacts that exports and increased natural gas production would create.
In addition, the US is currently negotiating a new trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), with ten nations across the Pacific Rim. Additional countries are considering joining the pact, including Japan--the world's largest natural gas importer. The agreement, in its current form, would leave the Administration unable to condition or deny export licenses to hungry international gas markets in TPP countries, even if those exports would harm public health and the US economy.
In light of these risks and the deficiencies of the DOE’s oversight and review process to date, the group letter urges the Obama Administration to thoroughly study and diligently address the economic, environmental, and trade aspects of gas exports before making any final decisions on proposed export terminals.
For
more information on why policymakers and the public need fair analysis and
disclosure of the risks of LNG export before deciding whether to allow exports,
please go to Sierra Club's Beyond Natural Gas website.
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