Delaware Currents Presents
LNG: Wyalusing, PA to Gibbstown, NJ
Latest News:
Is this the beginning of the end for Gibbstown LNG project?
Breaking news: Since the time of publication of this story, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration confirmed that it has, in fact, received a renewal application for the special permit to allow the transportation of LNG by rail for the Wyalusing-to-Gibbstown project.The application was received on Tuesday, the day the permit was set to…
New obstacles loom large for Wyalusing-Gibbstown LNG project
A contentious plan to export liquified natural gas from a Delaware River port faces new political, economic and environmental headwinds that raise questions about its future. A new White House administration, a global market that was once white-hot that has considerably cooled in the past two years and pandemic-related workforce disruptions cast long shadows over…
Gibbstown LNG Dock 1 got Coast Guard’s “Letter of Recommendation”
Letter dated Dec. 18, 2019
By Chris Mele Hazardous materials regularly roll through Northeastern Pennsylvania communities by rail and road and it’s left to local first responders to be ready for when things go wrong. Haz-mat incidents vary in degrees of danger, records show. Commonly, crews are called to overturned trucks leaking diesel fuel. Infrequently, there are more serious incidents,…
First Responders: Prepared for LNG Emergencies? The Evidence Is Not Reassuring
Hazardous materials regularly roll through Northeastern Pennsylvania communities by rail and road and it’s left to local first responders to be ready for when things go wrong. Haz-mat incidents vary in degrees of danger, records show. Commonly, crews are called to overturned trucks leaking diesel fuel. Infrequently, there are more serious incidents, such as a…
LNG From Pennsylvania to New Jersey: 400 Tanker Trucks a Day
A plan to bring liquified natural gas from Wyalusing, Pa., to a port in Gibbstown, N.J., has focused largely on the potential hazards of transporting as much as 3 million gallons of the highly flammable product at a time by rail. But the project sponsor also has plans to send as many as 400 tanker…
Opponents of Pennsylvania-New Jersey LNG Plan Cheer Federal Ruling
Critics of a plan to transport liquefied natural gas from northeastern Pennsylvania to a port on the Delaware River in New Jersey welcomed a recent federal ruling that they say could put up significant regulatory speed bumps – or possibly derail the project altogether. The ruling, by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, involved an LNG facility…
The Storage and Transportation of LNG: What Could Go Wrong?
Lonnie E. Click, a fire chief in Benton County in southern Washington, was at his desk when he first heard the call: an explosion at a liquified natural gas storage facility. The call was outside his jurisdiction but, based on what he was hearing on the radio, he decided to head to the scene. From atop a hill, Click…
LNG Rail Tank Cars: The Few and the Unknown
The newly permitted tank cars that would take LNG from Wyalusing, Pa. to Gibbstown, N.J. by train are posing lots of questions — especially about safety and availability — and there aren’t a lot of answers.
Gibbstown LNG Project: Chronology
Aug. 21, 2017: The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration receives an application from Energy Transport Solutions, a subsidiary of New Fortress Energy, for a special permit to transport “methane, refrigerated liquid,” otherwise known as liquid natural gas, in specialized rail cars. Oct. 2, 2017: The DOT publishes a notice in the…
The LNG Project Explained
-
What is the project?
The energy giant New Fortress Energy and its subsidiaries want to transform natural gas at a plant in Wyalusing, Pa., northwest of Scranton, into super-cooled liquid natural gas and transport it by rail or highway to a port in Gibbstown, N.J., about 180 miles away. From the port, it would be shipped overseas.
-
Where will the gas come from?
It is expected to come to the Wyalusing site via a pipeline from areas of Pennsylvania where fracking is taking place to extract the gas.
-
What routes would LNG take by rail or highway?
The company has not publicly disclosed those details though environmental activists have identified two rail and two highway routes that could take trains and trucks through some combination of 18 counties in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
-
Have concerns been raised about the project?
Yes, many. Opponents and environmental activists have cited, among other things, public safety concerns about so-called "bomb trains" rolling through populated areas, including places like Philadelphia, the promotion of fracking, the effects of dredging needed to complete a deep-water port in the Delaware River, and a lack of transparency.
-
What does the company say about the safety concerns?
Its consultants have said that LNG has long been safely transported on highways by tankers and that rail transportation is safe: It estimated one fatality once every 200 years for high-speed train transport and one fatality once every 350 years for low-speed transport.
-
What is the status of the project?
It has cleared many numerous regulatory and permitting hurdles, including the approval of the Delaware River Basin Commission, but a good number remain. The company has indicated in regulatory filings that production of LNG at the Wyalusing plant is expected to start in the first quarter of 2022.
