Blog Categories: economy

European Imports of U.S. Fracked Gas Up Nearly 300% Since Last Year

Brussels — As decision makers, industry and officials meet at the Madrid Forum to discuss the creation of an internal gas market in Europe, Food & Water Watch released a report showing that more than 700 U.S. facilities have been built or are planned to take advantage of cheap fracked U.S. gas. The Fracking Endgame: Locked Into Plastic, Pollution and Climate Chaos is the first survey of the extent to which the oil and gas industry, the petrochemical industry, and the electric power industry in the U.S. are building out fracked gas infrastructure to export liquefied natural gas (LNG), manufacture more plastics, and build gas-fired power plants.

The Food & Water Watch report follows on the heels of recent remarks by U.S. Department of Energy Officials calling LNG exports “molecules of U.S. freedom” and “freedom gas”.

“Trump’s so-called ‘Energy Dominance’ agenda is not just a domestic policy: it’s a foreign policy,” said Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Europe. “Meanwhile, EU officials are working with the Trump administration to enrich energy cronies for something Europeans don’t need, and that will commit us to climate and plastic pollution. On top of that, they are diverting EU public money to build these import facilities. EU’s leaders are paving the way for U.S. energy dominance over Europe and a dangerous fossil lock-in.”

According to the European Commission, U.S. LNG exports to Europe have risen by 272% since July 2018. Many EU Member States currently import fracked US gas, while many have fracking bans on the books in their own countries. This is all despite the fact that Europe has not suffered gas shortages. The utilisation rate of all existing EU LNG terminals is – following calculations based on data from Gas Infrastructure Europe –  at only about one quarter, clearly showing that any new investments in LNG infrastructure will almost inevitably create stranded assets.

Last month, over 200 groups in the U.S. and Europe called on their leaders to stop the Transatlantic LNG trade, saying it “torpedoes critical climate targets and violates basic human rights.”

The report notes that:

• The U.S. plastics industry is projecting it will add 28 million tons of plastic production between 2011 and 2020, and more than $202 billion slated to be invested in 333 new facilities and expansions related to fracked gas (including 20 ethylene crackers that will turn shale gas into feedstock for plastic manufacturing.) This investment is expected to drive a 40 percent increase in global plastic production over the next decade.
• U.S. gas exporters are promoting LNG exports to reduce the domestic gas supply and raise prices. In 2018, there were three active LNG export facilities in the U.S., but 22 more were either already being built or were approved for construction; 22 more were pending federal review.
• The U.S. power industry has 364 new gas-fired plants under development between 2018-2022, with gas deliveries to power plants rising 57 percent between 2006 and 2017.

“We are seeing a Transatlantic lock-in of fossil fuels unfold before our eyes,” says Hauter. “And it won’t be the people of the U.S. or Europe that benefit: it will be the fossil fuel and plastic industry.”

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Read the Food & Water Watch report The Fracking End Game: Locked in to Plastics, Pollution and Climate Chaos

A short companion fact sheet can be found here.

 Contacts:

 Andy Gheorghiu, Policy Advisor & Campaigner, Food & Water Europe, Stechbahn 9, 34497 Korbach, Germany, email: [email protected]; mobile: +49 160 20 30 974

Frida Kieninger, Campaign Officer, Food & Water Europe, Rue d’Edimbourg 26, Brussels 1050, Belgium  •  email: [email protected]; +32 (0) 2893 1045; mobile: +32 487 24 99 05

American Statistics Show Pregnant Women Living Near UK Fracking Sites Have A 40% Risk Of Premature Birth

Brussels/Washington/London/Geneva, 25 Feb 2019

A co-signed letter from a group of environmental organisations and human rights activists to The Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) recommends that the United Nations ban fracking in order to protect the health and well-being of women threatened by the dangerous drilling practice in the United Kingdom.

Representatives of the UK Government are meeting CEDAW in Geneva on Tuesday, 26^th February 2019.

In the Summer of 2018, CEDAW asked the UK Government to provide information on the measures being taken to mitigate and address the health and environmental impacts of toxic substances on women and girls, in particular rural women, due to planned fracking activities.

The UK Government answered in November 2018 that it has: “a robust regulatory system which provides a comprehensive regime for exploratory activities,” and “tough regulations in place to ensure on site safety, prevent water contamination, and mitigate seismic activity and air pollution.”

Activists have argued that the UK government’s measures are not sufficient to protect women.

Dame Vivienne Westwood, Hollywood Actress and United Nations Human Rights Champion, Amber Heard and Wenonah Hauter, Founder and Executive Director of Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Europe have all signed a letter to the CEDAW along with environmental groups such as Food & Water Europe, Talk Fracking, #BreakFreeFromPlastic, Frack Free United; academics such as Dr. Damien Short, Co-Director of the Human Rights Consortium, London and Energy Policy Professor Peter Strachan, Aberdeen, together with the Concerned Health Professionals UK and the National Union of Students.

They also strongly disagree with the claims made by the UK Government.

The group believes women’s rights are compromised because:

– Fracking is linked to higher rates of cancer, nervous, immune and cardiovascular problems in women.

– Pregnant women who live near active fracking operations have a 40% increased risk of giving birth prematurely and 30% have obstetrician-labeled ‘high-risk pregnancies, according to a Pennsylvania study by the Concerned Heath Professionals of New York.

– Fertility and menstrual problems in women can be caused from exposure the fracking chemicals including benzene, toluene and xylene (BTX chemicals).

– Miscarriages and still births can be caused by the heavy metals found in fracking waste water.

Amber Heard said on Twitter, retweeted by Vivienne Westwood: “Only a comprehensive ban can protect women and human rights from the destructive impacts of fracking in the UK.”

Vivienne Westwood says: “We want to highlight the harm fracking causes pregnant women. Pregnant women who live near active fracking operations in Pennsylvania were at a 40 percent increased risk of giving birth prematurely and at a 30 percent increased risk for having obstetrician-labeled high-risk pregnancies. This is an example of the virulent, poisoning effect of fracking to all life and we therefore want to support Amber Heard and the group asking for CEDAW to demand that it stops.”

Wenonah Hauter, Founder and Executive Director of Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Europe. “We’ve experienced the negative impacts of fracking on rural women in the US. The UK Government still has the opportunity to prevent this and must ban fracking.”

March 14th, 2018 – MEPs in Strasbourg today voted on a motion to oppose the EU’s Projects of Common Interest (PCI) list, on the basis that it includes over 100 new fossil gas infrastructure projects. However there was no majority to reject the list, which also includes a number of other energy infrastructure projects.

Reacting to the vote, Antoine Simon, Fossil Free campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe, said: “A full rejection of this list of priority energy infrastructure (PCI) was always going to be a tall order; but it’s welcome to see 177 MEPs for the first time opposing the EU’s reckless support for new climate-wrecking gas projects. The time is running out to end our dependency on fossil fuels and that means no new gas pipelines.”

Frida Kieninger, Campaign Officer for Food & Water Europe, said: “While it is the first time that the EU-Parliament voices open objection to this priority list for fossil fuels, this is also the first PCI list designed and adopted after the Paris Climate Agreement entered into force. With a far too strong focus on fossil gas projects, today’s adoption of the PCI list marks a setback for the environment, human rights and our global climate.”

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Notes: 

The PCI list covers priority energy infrastructure projects to be built in Europe, drawn up by the European Commission, Member States and European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG). Approved projects become eligible for EU funding (under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF)).

The list contains the controversial Southern Gas Corridor, which has already been associated with serious human rights violations in Azerbajan; the MidCat pipeline between France and Spain facing growing protests on both sides of the Pyrenees; and three LNG terminals in Croatia, Greece and Ireland, for environmentally destructive shale gas imported from the US.

Friends of the Earth Europe has previously revealed that the list is based on flawed data provided by the gas industry, and has not been tested against the Paris Agreement’s climate targets.

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Contact:
Antoine Simon, Fossil Free campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe, [email protected], +32 (0) 486 685 664
Frida Kieninger, Campaign Officer for Food & Water Europe, [email protected], +32 (0) 487 249 905