Eventbrite Link for Ennis Event here
Eventbrite Link for Dublin Event here
From October 11th-14th, the Stop Shannon LNG Coalition will host a tour of four visitors from the USA and Germany who have been impacted by the fossil fuel extraction process, Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) import and export terminals, and were involved in an award-winning Greenpeace documentary about their experiences.
The “Gaslit Speakers Tour” will include the Irish premiere screening of the documentary “Gaslit” which tells the stories of communities living in Texas, Louisiana and Germany. The visitors to Ireland who feature in the documentary with Jane Fonda include Sharon Wilson of Oilfield Witness, James Hiatt of For a Better Bayou, and Andy Gheorghiu, transatlantic coordinator.
Alexandra Buehler from Rügen, a German island off the Baltic sea will also take part in the Gaslit speakers tour which aims to raise awareness in Ireland about the human health and environmental impacts of gas-related infrastructure. A Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU), a large vessel also known as an offshore LNG import terminal, similar to the facilities proposed in Cahercon, Co. Clare and Ballylongford, Co. Kerry, was recently built in Rügan, and Ms Buehler has joined the tour to Ireland to share her experiences with local people in Clare who would live near the proposed facility.
“I am so excited to be part of the Gaslit tour in Ireland because I truly believe the Irish are the most helpful people in the world. I have felt this warmth so many times before,” said Ms Buehler. “The FSRU has destroyed our nature, it is extremely loud and dirty and totally unnecessary. And it is part of a system that imports suffering!” she continued. “We hope that our tour will send the message to people in Ireland that LNG will not be good for their communities” said Ms Buehler.
Sharon Wilson, Texas native said, “I lived on a farm where the fracking boom began in 1996. I watched my air turn brown and my wellwater turn black. The impacts of LNG on our health and planet begin in the Permian Basin where they drill and they magnify the suffering, death and destruction all the way to the Gulf of Mexico and on to Europe for your dirty methane gas power plants and data centers. ‘Clean natural gas’ is the biggest scam in history and they get away with it because the pollution is invisible.”
“Somebody might need to point out the obvious,” continued Ms Wilson. “Making a deal with the Trump Administration will bring Ireland energy vulnerability not security”.
“In Southwest Louisiana, we are living the other end of the deal Ireland is being offered. Fishermen who’ve fed their families for generations have watched these LNG terminals destroy their estuaries and livelihoods. Our neighbours breathe the flaring and the pollution every day, and their health is paying the price so billionaires can make money shipping fracked gas across the ocean. I came to Ireland to tell people the truth before the ships arrive: every cargo of LNG carries our suffering with it. Ireland should refuse to be complicit in this suffering.” said James Hiatt, Director of For a Better Bayou in Louisiana.
Transatlantic coordinator and consultant, Andy Gheorghiu said: “The writing is crystal clear on the wall and through the daily news right in front of our faces: Gas – in particular LNG – markets are super volatile, super expensive and not fit for purpose to guarantee energy security at all! The Trump administration is using fracked LNG as a geopolitical tool to attack our climate and human rights laws and dismantle our democracies.”
The Irish Premiere of the “Gaslit” documentary will take place in the Temple Gate Hotel in Ennis on 11th October, and will be followed by a visit to the site of the proposed Liquified Natural Gas terminal near Kildysart in Co. Clare. The tour will then travel to Dublin for meetings with politicians and will hand in an open letter to Minister Darragh O’ Brien at the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment. “Gaslit” will also be screened at the Robert Emmet Lecture Theatre in Trinity College Dublin on 14th October at 6pm.
Organisers of the tour, the Stop Shannon LNG Coalition, is made up of several environmental groups including Futureproof Clare, Gluaiseacht, Love Leitrim, Slí Eile, Extinction Rebellion Ireland and others who have been campaigning for over a decade against the proposed Shannon LNG Liquified Natural Gas terminal in Ballylongford, which is currently under consideration for planning permission by An Coimisiún Pleanála.
Since the government announced plans for a floating LNG terminal in Cahercon, Co Clare last November, the Coalition’s focus has shifted to include the Strategic Gas Reserve Bill that was passed in the Oireachtas this Summer to facilitate the building of the Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) on the Shannon Estuary, while continuing to raise awareness locally and nationally about the implications of LNG at home and abroad.
“We are campaigning for a ban on LNG terminals in Ireland because the Liquified Natural Gas industry is a leading driver of climate breakdown. The terminal would import US fracked gas, even though Ireland has banned fracking at home.” said Criostóir King from Kilkee, Co. Clare who is part of the Stop Shannon LNG coalition.
“The Clare LNG terminal is billed as a strategic reserve for Ireland’s energy security, yet the real demand for gas is in data centre expansion,” said Sinéad Sheehan, campaigner with Futureproof Clare and the Stop Shannon LNG coalition. She continued, “It’s a crazy time to lock Ireland into dependence on the US for energy – this is not reliable or secure, and it’s also very expensive, so consumers will end up paying even more energy costs if the terminal in Clare goes ahead. It’s time to ban LNG terminals in Ireland once and for all.”
Anyone with an interest in learning more about LNG and to join the campaign are encouraged to attend the events or to reach out to the Coalition at stopshannonlng@gmail.com.