proliferation of LNG on Louisiana coast

 LNG facilities and LNG export terminals rapidly developing along Louisiana's fragile coast.

TAKE ACTION SUBMIT COMMENTS BY MARCH 15th

Say NO to the Commonwealth Liquified Natural Gas export terminal proposed for the western side of Calcasieu Pass. This project would destroy and impact the most important known site in Louisiana for Eastern Black Rail (which is a marsh bird), which was added to the Endangered Species List in 2020. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) held a hearing earlier this week in Cameron, Louisiana.

The Louisiana Department of Natural Resources will accept written comments submitted through the portal linked here. The deadline to submit is March 15th!!! Need help developing comments? Check out this one pager by Sierra Club and Healthy Gulf.

You Can't Remediate Dead Fish

 “You can’t remediate dead fish,” said an elected official from one of the parishes that shares the lakefront. “There is no amount of money that would make us understand this and accept it. We are fine the way we are.”

SAVE LAKE MAUREPAS   SAVE OUR MANCHAC 

https://www.facebook.com/smanchac/ 

Two recent articles in DeSmog note growing concerns for Lake Maurepas' fragile ecosystem and the failed or underperformed carbon capture technologies, which have been described as inefficient, underperforming, and enormously expensive.

ByJulie Dermansky
The Battle to Stop Air Products’ Carbon Capture Project at Lake Maurepas Grows
Pro-industry NIMBYs leading the fight question the company’s claims of being “clean.”

Hydrogen, which can be made from natural gas, is only “blue” if carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is used to offset some of the carbon emitted from the manufacturing. Air Products, the Fortune 500 company behind this proposed project, is planning to store the carbon it captures in injection wells under Lake Maurepas, a prized ecosystem that offers plentiful seafood and vital storm surge protection for nearby residents.

ByDana Drugmand Big Oil’s Been Secretly Validating Critics’ Concerns about Carbon Capture  A DeSmog analysis of subpoenaed internal oil industry communications shows CCS as the strategic linchpin for more oil and gas development.

There is mounting evidence, however, that CCS is ineffective. Numerous projects have failed or underperformed. Some studies indicate the technology does little to reduce emissions, and may even increase carbon and other air pollution. Climate and environmental justice organizations, some climate and energy experts, and some lawmakers, are speaking out against the false promise of CCS. And in the wake of the IRA’s passage, the business partners who started the first private CCS company in the United States wrote an op-ed in The New York Times condemning the technology and the billions of federal dollars propping it up. They argue that CCS is inefficient, underperforming, and enormously expensive, while facilitating further fossil fuel development — especially when the captured carbon is used to extract more oil and gas.  

Save Lake Maurepas

 

We ask you to sign this petition by the Lake Maurepas Preservation Society to protect the lake from industrial intrusion by carbon capture! The petition asks Governor Jon Bel Edwards and the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources to halt the current activity in Lake Maurepas and surrounding wetlands, place permanent moratorium on new CO2 wells and CO2 pipelines, and require an  Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for any industrial activity in Lake Maurepas and the surrounding wetlands. We believe that Lake Maurepas deserves the same protections as Lake Pontchartrain to which it is directly connected.

EPA's outdated water discharge standards

 “People say we need the jobs and the products (refineries) make.” “That’s true. But we don’t need the pollution. They can do better.”  -- John Beard, founder of the Port Arthur Community Action Network, a group working to clean Sabine Lake and other waterways along the Texas-Louisiana border. 

“The EPA’s failure to act has exposed public waterways to a witches’ brew of refinery contaminants,” the study by the Environmental Integrity Project found.

PBF Energy's refinery "near New Orleans ranked 8th, 9th and 10th for releases of nitrogen, a nutrient that feeds algal blooms and is the main contributor to the Gulf of Mexico’s low-oxygen ‘dead zone'."

Louisiana has 8 of the worst water-polluting refineries in the country, study says Heavy metals, nitrogen and ammonia are spilling from oil refineries, tainting the Mississippi, Gulf of Mexico

by Tristan Baurick 

EPA needs to update particulate matter standards

 

Environmental Defense Fund advocacy for public health and stronger EPA standards. 
 Submit public comments today.

Stronger soot standards save lives.

Soot, officially known as particle pollution, is a dangerous and deadly pollutant produced by power plants, vehicle tailpipes and industrial sources. Studies have found that soot causes between 85,000 to 200,000 deaths each year.

That’s why we need the EPA to set stronger standards that slash emissions, protect our air, advance environmental justice and safeguard our health.

It’s time for EPA to set the strongest science-based soot standards to protect our air, advance environmental justice and protect our health. Submit a public comment and urge EPA to to update critical public health protections from soot!

The current set of standards for soot pollution are dangerously outdated, and are insufficient to protect the health of our environment and communities. EPA took an important step toward addressing the problem in a recent proposal, but we urge EPA to strengthen the level of protection in the final standards.

Send public comments to the EPA in support for stronger science-based standards — soot emissions reaching levels no higher than 8 micrograms per cubic meter annually, and 25 micrograms per cubic meter daily — to ensure cleaner air for everyone. Strengthening our current annual national soot standard of 12 micrograms per cubic meter to 8 micrograms per cubic meter would save 19,600 lives each year.

Exposure to, and inhalation of, soot is linked to a variety of heart and lung diseases, in addition to reduced lung development in children, higher rates of asthma, bronchitis, heart disease, cancer and early death.

Updating these decade old standards consistent with the health science will help protect our most vulnerable, including children, seniors and people with chronic illness. These groups are particularly susceptible to the impacts of soot inhalation and are more likely to suffer increased mortality rates, hospitalizations and visits to the ER.

Impacts like these are particularly felt in communities of color and low-income communities, who are more likely to live in areas co-located with sources of this deadly pollutant. But stronger federal standards could change this, shrinking disparities and ensuring cleaner air for everyone. 

Submit public comments urging EPA to finalize the strongest possible soot standards soon. There is no time to waste.

https://www.edf.org/

PBF Energy fire

 PBF Energy's Chalmette refinery fire Saturday January 21 2023 reportedly was contained and extinguished quickly. There were no reports of injury. Nearby residents question why the refinery alarms were not sounded to alert the community.  

PBF Energy's Chalmette plant fire January 21 2023 Photo Credit @nickreimann

Save Monkey Island

 

Public Comments to Dept Natural Resources

Calcasieu Pass 2 LNG Terminal

There's an island at the end of the Calcasieu River in Louisiana called Monkey Island.

https://www.facebook.com/james.hiatt.50/videos/676552000845227

This CP2 LNG Terminal wants to dredge and cut half of the island to make a ship berth.

They also want to destroy over 1700 acres of wetlands to put yet another unneeded gas export terminal at the coast. They want to build directly next to residents homes.

Cameron Parish, LA doesn't have industrial/residential zoning, and as such the Police Jury has disregarded the residents who live next to this proposed terminal. How would you feel if they built a massive, loud, and polluting terminal in your backyard? How would you feel if they dredged and disturbed your fishing grounds, destroying your ability to make money and your way of life?

If you love Cameron Parish, oysters & shrimp, the people and the wildlife, then please let the Department of Natural Resources know how yet another terminal at the mouth of the River makes you feel:

www.sc.org/cp2lng

Do it today: The deadline is Friday for public comments.

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