Karen Feridun
1,000 signatures reached
To: President Biden and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
Stop Trump-era Actions on Moving Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) by Rail
We, the undersigned, call upon President Biden and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to take decisive action to protect our communities. Our communities must not be exposed to the threat to their safety posed by LNG transportation by rail.
1. We call upon PHMSA to adopt proposed rule RIN 2137–AF55 in order to suspend the previous federal administration’s federal rule that authorized LNG to be transported on the nation’s railways.
2. Deny a renewal request by Energy Transport Solutions of Special Permit DOT-SP 20534, authorized in 2019, for the transport of LNG from a planned LNG liquefaction plant in Wyalusing Township, PA to the Gibbstown Logistics Center in Gibbstown, NJ. The trains would cut through hundreds of communities, including densely populated areas such as Wilkes Barre, Reading, Allentown, and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania and Camden and other southern municipalities in New Jersey. The permit was never used and the renewal request was received at the last minute.
3. We call upon PHMSA and the Biden administration to permanently ban the transport of LNG on the nation’s railways, as was the status for decades, prior to the previous administration’s rulemaking to permit it and to deny approval for Special Permits before the ban is adopted.
1. We call upon PHMSA to adopt proposed rule RIN 2137–AF55 in order to suspend the previous federal administration’s federal rule that authorized LNG to be transported on the nation’s railways.
2. Deny a renewal request by Energy Transport Solutions of Special Permit DOT-SP 20534, authorized in 2019, for the transport of LNG from a planned LNG liquefaction plant in Wyalusing Township, PA to the Gibbstown Logistics Center in Gibbstown, NJ. The trains would cut through hundreds of communities, including densely populated areas such as Wilkes Barre, Reading, Allentown, and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania and Camden and other southern municipalities in New Jersey. The permit was never used and the renewal request was received at the last minute.
3. We call upon PHMSA and the Biden administration to permanently ban the transport of LNG on the nation’s railways, as was the status for decades, prior to the previous administration’s rulemaking to permit it and to deny approval for Special Permits before the ban is adopted.
Why is this important?
Since long before the Ukraine crisis, we have been pressing for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to decide on two important matters regarding the movement of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) by rail.
The first is a rule that would reverse a Trump-era policy that has allowed LNG to be transported by rail for the first time in decades.
The second concerns a Special Permit issued by PHMSA to Energy Transport Solutions (ETS) for rail transport from Wyalusing, PA, to an export terminal in Gibbstown, NJ, that expired on November 30 after two years with no use. The rules say that the company needed to apply for a permit renewal 60 days before it expired. ETS submitted a late application for a renewal on the date of expiration. PHMSA is currently deciding how to handle the application.
Above all, we have been calling on the Biden administration and PHMSA to permanently ban LNG transport by rail that would include a ban on special permits like the one ETS received.
The Ukraine crisis has recently put LNG into the spotlight as a fuel that could be exported to Europe. Oil and gas interests and their allies in Congress are pushing the narrative that LNG exports equal energy security, even though they admit in the fine print that it would take years to put in place the necessary infrastructure.
Those are the same precious few years we have left to address the climate crisis. The real path to energy security is a rapid and just transition to alternative energy.
But that's not how the industry or its allies see it. And so as pressure mounts to start exporting LNG to Europe, PHMSA may be pressured to back off of any action that would stop the movement of LNG by rail. And that puts communities on or even near the path of those trains at risk of suffering the impacts of catastrophic failures.
The first is a rule that would reverse a Trump-era policy that has allowed LNG to be transported by rail for the first time in decades.
The second concerns a Special Permit issued by PHMSA to Energy Transport Solutions (ETS) for rail transport from Wyalusing, PA, to an export terminal in Gibbstown, NJ, that expired on November 30 after two years with no use. The rules say that the company needed to apply for a permit renewal 60 days before it expired. ETS submitted a late application for a renewal on the date of expiration. PHMSA is currently deciding how to handle the application.
Above all, we have been calling on the Biden administration and PHMSA to permanently ban LNG transport by rail that would include a ban on special permits like the one ETS received.
The Ukraine crisis has recently put LNG into the spotlight as a fuel that could be exported to Europe. Oil and gas interests and their allies in Congress are pushing the narrative that LNG exports equal energy security, even though they admit in the fine print that it would take years to put in place the necessary infrastructure.
Those are the same precious few years we have left to address the climate crisis. The real path to energy security is a rapid and just transition to alternative energy.
But that's not how the industry or its allies see it. And so as pressure mounts to start exporting LNG to Europe, PHMSA may be pressured to back off of any action that would stop the movement of LNG by rail. And that puts communities on or even near the path of those trains at risk of suffering the impacts of catastrophic failures.