Saturday, 3rd May, Clancy’s Strand, Limerick City, Activists from Extinction Rebellion Ireland (XRI) and the Stop Shannon LNG coalition hung a hand-painted, 14m wide “Stop Shannon LNG” banner depicting an LNG tanker and a bottlenose dolphin. The city was crowded with Riverfest festival-goers, and many were curious about the banner. The activists took the opportunity to engage with them about the looming threat of Ireland getting locked into decades more of climate-wrecking fossil fuel usage, due to a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal being planned - with the Shannon Estuary being the most touted location. The activists dispersed leaflets sharing the message that allowing LNG terminals would be disastrous for the climate, for communities suffering the devastating consequences of fracking where the gas is sourced and would endanger a key habitat for bottlenose dolphins.

The dramatic banner and related outreach form part of a ramping up of activity by XRI and the broader Stop Shannon LNG coalition following a series of recent decisions that have moved Ireland closer to LNG terminals becoming a reality - undoing years of tireless anti-LNG and anti-fracking campaigning by groups and local communities. In early March, the Government approved a plan to develop a floating State-led liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and ended the 2021 Government policy which had banned the importation of fracked gas. March also saw Shannon LNG Ltd’s application for a 600MW gas powerplant on their 600 acre site on the Shannon estuary approved and An Bord Pleanála (ABP) withdraw its appeal of the High Court’s overturning of the ABP denial of Shannon LNG Ltd’s application to build an LNG terminal at the site.

Claire Connolly of XRI said, “As a young person, I’m sick of the Government and the planning system making decisions that condemn me to a terrifying future. Ireland was already way off track on our climate targets, but by supporting an LNG terminal and throwing out the ban on importation of fracked gas, this Government has completely abandoned the climate. It’s obvious they only care about keeping greedy data centre and fossil fuel company bosses happy - ensuring that US data centres in Ireland have a steady supply of dirty US fracked-gas-powered electricity. It’s madness and we all have to stand up to this if we care about young people and future generations”

Shannon LNG Ltd’s parent company is US giant, New Fortress Energy. In the company’s latest annual report, it laid out plans to leverage the land it owns in Ireland to build energy-hungry hyperscale data centres. Data centres already use more energy than all Irish urban households combined and their energy bills are subsidised by Irish taxpayers.

In addition to huge climate and environmental impacts, LNG terminals are highly explosive and can present a terrorist target. According to a report by the US Council on Foreign Relations, both LNG tankers and the terminals they serve are potential terrorist targets “because of LNG’s explosive potential”.

LNG terminals are also a proven threat to public health. LNG terminals can poison surrounding water and land, resulting in health problems such as exposure to radioactive materials, cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory illness.

Over its life cycle, LNG produces up to 33% more emissions than coal. This is due to the energy required to compress the gas into liquid, the methane which leaks into the atmosphere during the extraction, processing and transportation of LNG and the fuel burned in the huge tankers which carry it to its destination - on top of the carbon dioxide released when it’s burned.

Sinéad Sheehan of Futureproof Clare said, “The Government’s emergency-use label for a state-led terminal is a complete red herring to make an LNG terminal sound more palatable. LNG isn’t designed to be stored long-term. Even the Government itself has admitted that the full capacity of the terminal would have to be fed into our gas network even in non-emergency times. For context, the facility, when it’s full, would have enough energy to supply 200,000 homes for 6 months. So ultimately we’re talking loads of fracked gas going into our grid to fulfill data centre demand not demand from households”.

She further stated, “Alternatives to LNG - like community-owned renewable energy initiatives that give returns to local citizens are possible. The cost of the state-led terminal, which is estimated at €300 million, and then €60 million annually for operation, should be put into developing those alternatives - not into multi-billion dollar extractivist companies, while the local community and environment suffer”.

The government has acknowledged that its “strategic gas emergency reserve” in the form of an LNG terminal would have to be “refilled up to 6 times per year” because “natural evaporation, known as boil-off, is unavoidable when natural gas is liquefied, and the generated boil-off gas must be removed to preserve the tanks' pressure.”

Councillor Eddie Mitchell of Love Leitrim said, “In 2017, after tireless campaigning by Love Leitrim and many other environmental groups, fracking in Ireland was banned because of its terrible public health and environmental effects. If Ireland gets an LNG import terminal, it could end up being converted for export and we could see that ban overturned to allow fracking for gas here in Ireland to supply that terminal. We just need to look around the world. For instance the fracking ban in Victoria, Australia, is under threat because of the argument that it’s more economical to frack locally rather than import LNG, and to use the existing LNG terminal for exports as well as imports.”

Kerry native and long-time XRI activist, Maureen O’Connor said, “It is imperative that the Irish public do not let an LNG terminal go ahead, by opposing it on all fronts. We are calling for people to use their voice to protect local communities, our wildlife, the environment and future generations by contacting their TDs, Senators and Councillors to assert their opposition to LNG.”

The Shannon LNG coalition comprises multiple grassroots groups fighting the construction of a fracked gas import terminal in Ireland. These include Ecojustice Ireland, Futureproof Clare, Gluaiseacht, Love Leitrim, Not Here Not Anywhere, Safety Before LNG, Slí Eile, Future Generations Kerry and Extinction Rebellion Ireland.

XRI invites the public to go to the Stop Shannon LNG coalition’s website - stopshannonlng.ie - to learn more about the threat of LNG and how they can help stop it.

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