RP3 is partnering with the Clean Air Council, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and other allies to urge the Biden administration to STOP liquified natural gas (LNG) trains from transporting this dangerous and explosive material throughout Pennsylvania. Take action now to urge the Biden administration to STOP this dangerous plan!
Our collective failure to stop LNG by rail in Eastern Pennsylvania will quickly result in its spread to Western Pennsylvania - especially once the Shell Cracker plant in Beaver County comes on line. Norfolk Southern’s Pittsburgh Line (its most critical East/West route) already carries 40% of all the oil from the Bakken oil fields to the East Coast refineries. With its Pittsburgh Vertical Clearance Project (PVCP), Norfolk Southern plans to run less stable double-stack trains next to tanker cars carrying LNG on a route that zigzags through Pittsburgh’s most densely populated neighborhoods - a potentially deadly combination. Roughly 174,000 people live within one mile of the tracks carrying these explosive materials. That one-mile radius includes:
- all of Pittsburgh’s major hospitals;
- museums (whose collections have national treasure status);
- 3 stadiums;
- the Convention Center;
- the NRG power plant;
- telephone switching stations;
- 124 public and private schools;
- 5 universities (with combined enrollment of 75,000 students);
- 77 bridges (bridges in the city of Pittsburgh and bridges owned by Allegheny County);
- 6 nursing homes with a total bed count of 920; and,
- 108 parks
LNG by rail anywhere in Pennsylvania is a problem given the deterioration of the Commonwealth’s bridges — and the concomitant danger such a derailment would present to our water supply.
Until recently, transporting LNG by rail was banned to protect public safety.
The tankers the railroad plans to use are substandard. In addition, there has been no environmental impact study of the LNG export project, proposed rail routes or a determination of whether LNG can be safely be transported by rail at all. If there were to be a release of LNG, catastrophic impacts could include a fire that cannot be extinguished, a frigid vapor cloud that can kill instantly, and explosions that destroy everything in its path. If a derailment occurred, it is unlikely that the rail carrier would have adequate insurance to cover the damage.
LNG projects will worsen the climate crisis. LNG is liquefied methane, which is a greenhouse gas 87 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in warming the atmosphere on a 20-year time scale — the period of time when scientists say we must reduce greenhouse gas emissions to address the climate crisis. Over the past decade, oil and gas infrastructure has been a major source of methane releases. To produce LNG, more gas wells would be fracked, polluting Pennsylvania communities, and methane will be leaked or vented at every stage. Preparing and transporting LNG also presents numerous opportunities to leak methane.
Sign the petition to urge the Biden Administration to officially reinstate the ban on LNG transport by rail tank car and rescind the Special Permit for transporting LNG.
We deserve power without pollution and energy without injustice!
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