An environmental group in Chester led by Zulene Mayfield is challenging a proposal to put a $6.4 billion liquefied natural gas facility there, writes Aketa Lacy for The Intercept.
Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living are already fighting a concentration of incineration and waste treatment plants in the city which Mayfield said sickens the overwhelmingly Black, low-income community there.
Now an LNG facility is being proposed.
The Penn America facility would pipe in natural gas and liquify it for export.
Mayfield questions its safety. Environmental groups caution it’s not a clean energy alternative as carbon emissions would still be produced.
“It just carries forward this environmental racism and institutional bias towards dumping everything on the community that they think they can get away with dumping it on,” said Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, which is working with Mayfield’s group to get more information on the plant.
A Philadelphia LNG Export Task Force was formed in November 2022 to study the plant plans. Their report is expected by November.
The plant would need permits and federal and state approval before construction could start.
For deeper background on the proposed LNG plant, read the full article at The Intercept.
