- LNG would not provide energy security for Irish households – it would provide unsafe and costly fossil fuel energy for data centres
The Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) has recently outlined its proposal to allow data centres in Ireland to operate using gas if they can find their own supply. According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) energy use of data centres increased by 20% from 2022-2023 and increased by over 400% altogether in the last eight years. If this isn’t alarming enough, the CSO figures indicate that Ireland’s data centres are responsible for over 21% of Ireland’s total energy use, which is more energy as all Irish urban households put together. The CRU’s proposed policy rolls a virtual red carpet out for even more data centres and the LNG terminal will hook the data centres up to an abundant supply of fracked gas subsidised by Irish taxpayers. Don’t buy the government spin that the LNG terminal is for emergencies only – a government press release clarified that it will be filled at least 6 times per year but it could be more.
- Building an LNG terminal will lead to a further hike in electricity costs for Irish households
Data centre demand for electricity has already led to an increase in electricity costs for Irish consumers. Some politicians have claimed that an increase in supply of gas will lead to a reduction in costs but this simply is not true. Incredulously, the Irish taxpayer through electricity bills subsidises data centre use of energy. Building an LNG terminal will supply more data centres with their need for more gas, leading to more subsidisation and higher household electricity bills. Furthermore, without our consent, Irish residents (you and me) are now committed to pay Shannon LNG “capacity payments” of €494 million for supplying energy to Ireland (including the energy to data centres) through our household electricity bills. The rate of payment we the people will have to make to Shannon LNG exceeds the rate for British capacity payments by 70%.
- A LNG terminal in Ireland would threaten local public health
People who live near power plants, such as an LNG terminal are more likely to be hospitalised for respiratory illness. Living near a gas plant such as the 600MW Shannon LNG powerplant recently granted permission by An Bord Pleanála, is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes, childhood cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses, end-stage renal disease and diabetes according to public health scientists. Furthermore, the gas coming from fracked sources, is likely to contain high levels of radioactive materials such as radon, radioactive lead and polonium, a leading cause of lung cancer in the US.
- A LNG terminal importing fracked gas would threaten the stability of the fracking ban in Ireland.
In 2017 campaigners across Ireland successfully lobbied the government to ban fracking in Ireland on the basis of the public health issues associated with fracking.
However, the ban is weakened if we build an LNG terminal which would import mostly fracked gas from the US. Ballylongford, where the Shannon LNG terminal is proposed, is part of the Clare Shale Gas Basin covering areas in Kerry, Limerick, Cork and Clare (including Doonbeg where Trump’s golf course is located). If Ireland imports fracked gas we lose the moral argument against fracking here, it will be considered more sustainable to frack Ireland than to import fracked gas. Brazil, for example, imports LNG and is now coming under increasing pressure to begin fracking. Similarly the fracking ban in Victoria, Australia is also threatened with the argument that it is more economical to frack locally rather than import LNG, and to use the existing LNG terminal for exports as well as imports.
- The greenhouse gas emissions from LNG are 33% more potent than coal.
LNG has been touted by some fossil fuel companies as a “transition fuel” in the context of climate change because it emits less carbon dioxide than oil or coal. However, the methane emitted by gas traps more heat than carbon dioxide and comprehensive scientific evidence demonstrates that LNG, because of the processes involved in cooling, regasification and transportation of the fuel, has a one third larger impact on climate change compared to coal. More GhGs means more storms, more floods, more extreme events globally and Ireland is not immune.
Building an LNG terminal would lock Ireland into relying on fossil fuels for decades. It is long past time for the Irish government to admit that we are in a climate emergency. Yes, Ireland did declare a climate emergency in 2019. So why on earth would we build an expensive and dirty fracked gas import terminal worth millions for faceless foreign multinational oligarchs and at the same time, spelling death and destruction for those most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
- If Ireland hosts a LNG terminal we will miss our climate targets and have to pay costly fines.
The Climate Change Advisory Council have advised that Ireland could be eligible for up to 26 billion (yes billion) euros in fines if we increase our fossil fuel use, which of course we would by having gas on tap for large energy users such as Ireland’s multitude of data centres. This money would come from Irish taxpayers, not from the multinational corporations who are responsible for using more energy than Ireland’s households.
- There are fairer ways of ensuring security of energy for Irish households.
One of the most safe, clean and fair ways to ensure that Ireland has enough energy to meet its diverse needs is to promote and incentivise community-owned energy initiatives, which are already in existence here. LNG is the antithesis to community-owned energy as LNG (even if the government claim it is state-led) involves foreign multi-billion dollar extractivist fossil fuel companies who give little or nothing back to the local area.
- The importing of LNG is associated with hazards such as gas explosions, threatening local communities.
A key risk in LNG facilities is an uncontrolled release of a cryogenic, toxic, or flammable fluid. This can include liquid releases that form a pool on the ground or water and ignite, creating a potentially long-lasting pool fire. The combination of LNG and water is extremely dangerous, and this is important to consider because the Shannon LNG proposal involves a floating unit in the Shannon Estuary. Jet fires, flash fires and explosions are also possible and have occurred killing and injuring hundreds of workers and people living nearby LNG plants.
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