‘We suffer for everybody else’s comfort’: LNG facility proposed in Chester draws pushback

The third and final public hearing about building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in Southeastern Pennsylvania turned out to be the most raucous, with a crowd Tuesday opposing the facility cheering on a local Chester City activist who noted that no one on the panel mulling the proposal’s fate is from the city or Delaware County.

Pennsylvania State Rep. Martina White, a Republican from Philadelphia and chair of Pennsylvania’s Liquid Natural Gas Task Force, hosted the meeting at Widener University’s Lathem Hall to explore the economics of such a terminal, the needed state and federal permitting, and the environmental impact.

Although it has gone unstated during the meetings, the only known plan is from a New York firm, Penn LNG, headed by a native Philadelphian, to build a $6.4 billion terminal along the waterfront in Chester City, which is in Delaware County, as a way to capitalize on the abundance of Pennsylvania shale gas and soaring worldwide demand for LNG after Russian’s invasion of Ukraine.

Regional labor leaders, eager to create more construction jobs, have tried to raise support for a gas liquefaction plant and export terminal along the Delaware River, similar to facilities that have sprouted on the U.S. Gulf Coast and turned the United States into a major natural gas exporter. The Penn LNG proposal would include LNG manufacturing at the marine terminal, meaning gas would be cooled there to a temperature that allows it to be stored and transported.

Proponents say an LNG facility would bring thousands of jobs and millions in tax revenue to the area. Opponents are concerned about pollution and additional blight of the Chester City waterfront, which already contains a Covanta waste-to-energy facility and the Delcora plant that treats industrial sludge and wastewater.

“If this is such an economic plus for communities, why aren’t members, task force legislators fighting tooth and nail to have this economic development in their communities?” asked Zulene Mayfield, a longtime activist who testified Tuesday. “Why would you deny your communities all of this wealth?”

Currently, the East Coast has only two LNG export facilities, the larger of which, in Cove Point, Md., is comparable to the facility Penn LNG proposes.

Though a previous hearing allowed PennFuture, an environmental nonprofit, to testify against a local LNG facility, most speakers have been in favor of a terminal. Tuesday was the first time local activists were allowed in en masse and to testify. Twice, White stopped the hearing to caution the crowd against outbursts or questioning panelists’ integrity.

Mayfield, chair of Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living, has long fought the Covanta plant and is focused on defeating any LNG proposal. She noted the panel did not contain a representative from Chester, nor Delaware County. She said a previous LNG proposal died in Philadelphia.

“This committee is stacked with individuals that would have the most benefit financially from a proposal such as this,” Mayfield testified, also suggesting the Chester location was part of a plan to keep the facility out of Philadelphia.

At one point, White stopped Mayfield and asked her not to “impugn” the motives of the panel.

» READ MORE: Environmentalists protest being kept out of a meeting about a Philly port for liquefied natural gas

Mayfield said the plant would pose a risk in densely populated Chester City with about 33,000 residents. She said the Penn LNG plan would span 100 acres, including a buffer, that would displace homes, businesses, and churches.

“You have to understand the perspective of the community,” Mayfield said. “We are not anticapitalist. We are pro survivalist.”

Mayfield noted the other industrial facilities nearby. “We suffer for everybody else’s comfort,” she said.

Stefan Roots, a Chester council member, also testified, stating, “we’ve got a history here in Chester with industry that isn’t very flattering.”

Both Mayfield and Roots drew cheers from the crowd, some of whom held “No LNG” signs or wore “No LNG” shirts.

“As a Chester elected official, I take public health and public safety very seriously,” Roots said.

“The health and safety of Chester residents have been compromised by local industry for too long,” he continued. “Our residents are sick. We exceed in every measurable health disparity: asthma, birth defects, COPD, infant mortality, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, and a shorter life expectancy. To make matters worse, Chester doesn’t have a single primary care doctor left in the city to treat our citizens.”

Roots said the LNG terminal, which would be on the site of a warehouse complex, is on “Chester’s most attractive and valuable, undeveloped asset” and could be used for nonindustrial businesses or entertainment.

Chester City is in bankruptcy, and its retirees are faced with pension cuts. Roots defeated incumbent Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland in the May Democratic primary election amid the city’s financial turmoil.

Carl Marrara, executive director, Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association, said the facility would bring needed jobs to the city and county, while boosting tax revenue. His organization used software by IMPLAN to understand the economic impact a terminal could have given that LNG is “a fuel source that the world is craving.” The study used the Cove Point facility in Lusby, Md., as a model.

“We can help supply the world, especially our overseas allies as they seek to disentangle themselves from foreign adversaries such as Russia and Saudi Arabia,” Marrara said.

He said a four-year build out of an LNG facility would support “28,249 direct, indirect, and induced jobs.” It would generate $527 million in federal, state, and local tax revenue.

After the terminal is built, he said, it would support 514 permanent jobs and 1,280 indirect jobs. Ongoing operations would generate $52 million in tax revenue to the state, $85 million to the federal government, and $47 million to county and local coffers.

Marrara said about 30% of the jobs would require either some type of certification or some college such as an associate’s degree. About one-quarter of Delaware County’s population “possess the needed levels” of certification or education, he said.

State Sen. Gene Yaw, a Republican from Williamsport, noted that the modeling did not include local real estate taxes generated from sale of the property.

“Approximately two-thirds of the real estate taxes go to the school district,” Yaw said. “So this facility would seem to me would have a tremendous impact on the revenue that went to the school district.”