LNG, Plastics and Other Gas Industry Plans Would Add Climate Pollution Equal to 50 New Coal Plants

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This week, plans to build one of the worldโ€™s largest plastics and petrochemical plants in St. James Parish, Lousiana โ€” the heart of the stateโ€™s notorious Cancer Alley โ€” inched forward as Lousiana approved air quality permits that could allow the plant to release 13.6 million tons per year of greenhouse gases โ€” equal to three coal-fired power plants โ€” and a host of otherย pollutants.

The St. James plant would be the single most pollutingย facility of 157 planned new or expanding refineries, liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects, and petrochemical plants that have sought or obtained air pollution permits in the U.S., according to a report published today by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP).

Within the next five years, these plants could create as much as 227 million tons of additional climate-changing greenhouse gas pollution, bringing the industryโ€™s cumulative annual emissions to 990.5 millionย tons by 2025. Those planned facilitiesย createย an impact equal to adding 50 new coal-fired power plants to the U.S. electrical grid, the reportย concludes.

โ€œThe U.S. is already struggling to meet climate commitments and transition to a low-carbon future,โ€ Courtney Bernhardt, Research Director at the Environmental Integrity Project, said in a statement accompanying the report. โ€œThis analysis shows that weโ€™re heading in the wrong direction and really need to slow emissions growth from the oil, gas, and petrochemicalย industries.โ€

In addition to the climate impacts, the planned projects could have significant impacts on public health. โ€œAccording to their permit documents, the facilities could emit every year up to 119,000 tons of volatile organic compounds, which are a component of smog; 11,100 tons of fine particles that contribute to asthma and heart attacks;ย 8,800 tons of sulfur dioxide, which damages the lungs; and 47,200 tons of nitrogen oxides, which feed fish-killing โ€˜dead zonesโ€™ in waterways,โ€ EIPย wrote.

As Coal Slows, Oil and Gas Hit theย Accelerator

In 2019, actual coal-fired power plants were retired at a record-setting rate. Power generation in the U.S. from coal dropped 18 percentย from 2018 to 2019, according to estimates released January 7ย from the Rhodium Group. All told, the power sector reduced its carbon emissions by 150 million metric tons this pastย year.

But the planned oil and gas expansion described in EIPโ€™s report would move even more rapidly, undercutting the impacts of the power sectorโ€™s transition away from coal. A massive American oil and gas production boom, unleashed by fracking, has hit right as the impacts of climate change have become increasinglyย clear.

โ€˜โ€œIn 2018, the U.S. registered the largest annual increase in oil and gas production ever recorded by a single country in history,โ€ EIP reported. That in turn, has the oil, gas, petrochemical and LNG export industries planning a massive expansion in the U.S., even as the pressure to ratchet down fossil fuel useย grows.

That expansion is already underway. Between 2016 and 2018, EIP tallied a rise of 57 million tons, or eight percent, in greenhouse gases from theย industry.

โ€œOil and gas production and petrochemical manufacturing are responsible for most of the growth in greenhouse gas emissions today,โ€ Eric Schaeffer, Executive Director of the Environmental Integrity Project,ย said.

Most โ€” but not all โ€” of the oil and gas industryโ€™s planned projects will take place along the U.S. Gulf Coast. โ€œAbout half (76 of the 157) of the future projects are planned for Texas or Louisiana,โ€ EIP said. โ€œThese new or expanded plants could produce 145 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, accounting for roughly 75 percent of the expected increases from new oil and gas-related projects across in theย U.S.โ€

The report also includes the impacts of industry projects in Appalachia, Alaska, and other parts of the U.S. A similar report from EIP last year, which focused only on infrastructure along the Gulf Coast, added up permitted pollution equal to 29 new coal-fired powerย plants.

The expansion comes at a time when every single year matters, scientists say. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose work has included input from scientists from the fossil fuel industry, warns that the next decade will be enormously consequential for the fate of all life on Earth.ย 

Exporting LNG andย Plastics

Some of the biggest and most polluting projects identified in EIPโ€™s new report are LNG export terminals and petrochemical plants used to makeย plastics.

โ€œThe largest potential growth in greenhouse gas emissions could come from export of liquefied natural gas (LNG),โ€ EIP wrote. โ€œAn additional 18 new LNG export sea terminals and one inland facility are planned by 2025 that could emit up to 80 million more tons annually โ€” a potential 100-fold increase over aย decade.โ€

Among the LNG sites with the biggest planned pollution increases include the pre-construction Driftwood LNG plant in Calcasieu, Lousiana; the partially operating Cameron LNG plant, also in Lousiana; and the Rio Grande LNG terminal planned in Cameron, Texas. Those Gulf Coast sites are followed by the Alaska Gasline Development Corp.โ€™s Kenai Peninsulaย project.

After LNG, in terms of greenhouse gases, comes the rapidly expanding plastic and petrochemical industry. โ€œPetrochemical and plastics plants released 80 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2018,โ€ EIP wrote. โ€œProposed expansions and new plants could raise emissions by another 64 million tons annually โ€” a potential 80 percent increase โ€” by the end ofย 2025.โ€

The single largest permitted emissions increase would be at Formosa’s St. James site, where plastic, resin, and chemicals would be made. The Lake Charles methanol plant under construction in Calcasieu, Louisiana, ranks second, and Motiva Enterprisesโ€™ planned Port Arthur ethane cracker (creating plastics feedstocks)ย comes in third on EIPโ€™s list of petrochemical sites. Two plants in Appalachia, Shellโ€™s ethane cracker under construction in Beaver, Pennsylvania, and PTTGCโ€™s proposed petrochemical project in Belmont, Ohio, also report permitted greenhouse gas emissions of over 2 million tons perย year.

Leaks, Spills, and Burns โ€” Both Accidental andย Deliberate

EIPโ€™s new numbers include 36 million tons of permitted emissions a year from expanded oil and gas drilling, which the researchers said likely understates the actual amounts of greenhouse gases released because Clean Air Act permits are not required for thousands of smaller oil and gas projects, as well as many compressor stations and the fractionators and gas processing plants that separate out different natural gasย liquids.

EIPโ€™s new report also calls attention to the impacts of venting and flaring at oil and gas wells in Texasโ€™ Permian basin, which has escalated dramatically. Oil and gas companies sometimes deliberately allow gas to โ€œvent,โ€ or leakย to the atmosphere, or ignite (or โ€œflareโ€) the gas to burn it off โ€” and these two activities reached their all-time heights this past year, according to the Oil and Gasย Journal.

On an average day in the first quarter of 2012, drillers flared off 33 million cubic feet of gas, EIP said. By the end of 2018, drillers were burning off an average 488 million cubic feet each day. By the third quarter of 2019, average daily flaring estimates reached 752 million cubic feet per day, the report adds โ€” over 22 times as much gas per day as they had burned off seven yearsย earlier.

Devon Energy, WPX Energy, and ExxonMobil reported the highest emissions from venting and flaring, the report notes, citing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data from October 2019. At least five more companies, including one publicly traded firm, Diamondback Energy, reported no venting and flaring emissions to the EPA โ€” but gave different numbers to Texas state regulators, according to EIPโ€™sย report.

And then there are accidents. โ€œFor example, emissions from the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage blowout in 2015 and 2016, and a large 2018 well blowout at an ExxonMobil XTO Energy wellhead in Belmont County, Ohio, were not reported or were grossly underreported to EPAโ€™s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program,โ€ EIP wrote. โ€œRemote sensing studies of these events estimated that they released 2.7 million and 1.6 million tons of greenhouse gases, respectively.โ€
ย 


Plume from the Texas Petroleum Chemical (TPC) plant ย in Port Neches Texas, the day after multiple explosions rocked the plant, November 28, 2019.ย Credit: Julieย Dermansky

Stillย Pending

On the other hand, the report also notes that the 157 new plants may not actually pollute as much as their permits allow, which would bring the industryโ€™s cumulative emissions down, particularly as new plants gradually beginย operations.

โ€œThree of the 22 liquefied natural gas projects began fully or partially operating before the end of 2018: Sabine Pass LNG in Cameron Parrish, Louisiana; Corpus Christi Liquefaction in San Patricio County, Texas; and Dominion Cove Point in Calvert County, Maryland,โ€ EIP wrote. โ€œThese plants are authorized to emit a total of 19.2 million tons of greenhouse gases when fully operational, but they reported emitting only 5.3 million tons in 2018 as two of the three plants are not fullyย operating.โ€

Thereโ€™s also the possibility that not every proposed plant will be approved or that they will not be granted permits to pollute as much as their applicationsย project.

The report suggests that state and federal regulators have failed to demand that plants operate efficiently or used โ€œcost-effective, common sense methods that could limit emissions and save money by reducing fuel consumption and product loss.โ€ (โ€œExamples include recycling and reusing waste gases to conserve heat or minimize flaring, or superior leak detection practices that can identify and fix methane leaks from tanks and other equipment,โ€ EIPย noted.)

Nonetheless, a clear picture emerges from the details of theย data.

โ€œIn short, reported emissions from oil, natural gas, and chemical infrastructure have increased in recent years, and new infrastructure that is still in the pipeline has the potential to increase emissions even more,โ€ EIPโ€™s report concludes. โ€œThe industries responsible for driving fossil fuel extraction and production need to be held more fully accountable for their actions and the consequences of thoseย actions.โ€

Main image:ย Shellโ€™s sprawling plastics plant, also known as anโ€œethane cracker,โ€ under construction in November 2019 in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and representing part of the growing petrochemical industry in the United States. Credit: Julieย Dermansky

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Sharon Kelly is an attorney and investigative reporter based in Pennsylvania. She was previously a senior correspondent at The Capitol Forum and, prior to that, she reported for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, Earth Island Journal, and a variety of other print and online publications.

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