Ms Julia Walsh:

I am the founder and campaign director of Frack Action, a small non-governmental organisation, NGO, based in New York State, where I also live. I started Frack Action in 2010 because of the direct threat that fracking posed to my community. For five years, we worked with other grassroots organisations and NGOs to educate the public and our elected officials about the harm that fracking was inflicting on our neighbours in Pennsylvania. From New York, we were witnessing in real time a dramatic increase of pollution and sickness for people and the environment in the areas where fracking was taking place. Our campaigners worked with health professionals, who were studying the impacts that fracking was having throughout the US. Now the vast majority of more than 1,500 peer-reviewed scientific studies demonstrate that drilling and fracking cause serious risks and harm to public health and the environment. In 2015, our governor, Andrew Cuomo, listened to the science and banned fracking based on the risks to public health and the environment. Shortly thereafter, my organisation was invited to come here by local campaigners to share the reports on the impacts of fracking by the New York State Departments of Public Health and Environmental Conservation with the public, press and elected officials.

As a third generation Irish-American, I was relieved when my ancestral homeland banned fracking in 2017, thus protecting the people, water, air, land, animals and climate. That courageous action made Ireland an international leader on this issue, although that is still under threat, with potential fracking licences being granted in the North. I have been invited back by local campaigners to address the potential use of US fracked gas in Ireland and specifically the proposed Shannon liquefied natural gas, LNG, import terminal.

New York has had its own experience with LNG terminals. In 2015 the Governor, Andrew Cuomo, rejected the permit for the Port Ambrose LNG terminal and instead granted licences for offshore wind energy projects in that area. He said: “My administration carefully reviewed this project from all angles, and we have determined that the security and economic risks far outweigh any potential benefits.” The state of New York has also denied permission for several massive fracked gas pipelines from Pennsylvania to run through New York because of the dangers they pose to water, rivers, streams and wetlands, as well as the climate. This is important because New York’s decision to deny permits for fracking pipelines is a factor in the decision the committee faces today. Quite simply, there is a glut of fracked gas in Pennsylvania that cannot be brought to market. In financial terms, this gas is referred to as a "stranded asset".

The Taoiseach stated on 2 October during Taoiseach’s Questions that the gas for the Shannon LNG terminal was not necessarily fracked gas. Given what we know, this is a misleading statement. According to New Fortress Energy’s filing at the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 9 November 2018, two thirds of marketed gas production in the United States is from fracking. It also states the gas intended for the Shannon LNG terminal is fracked gas from Pennsylvania. On page 9 it states: “We are an integrated gas-to-power company that seeks to use “stranded” natural gas to satisfy the world’s large and growing power needs”. It details, on pages 9 and 14, how it is planning to build two plants to liquefy 3 million to 4 million gallons of fracked gas per day for export from Pennsylvania, with the potential to build more liquefier plants, with a 15-year contract to buy the fracked gas. One liquefier plant that New Fortress Energy is building is in Bradford County, one of the most heavily fracked counties in Pennsylvania where many residents are suffering from health ailments as a result. The liquefied natural gas will be transported by truck from Bradford County to a proposed LNG export terminal in Gibbstown, Pennsylvania, where there is enormous local opposition. It is quite clear that it will be fracked gas.

As many people and Deputies have stated, getting fracked gas from the United States when there is law banning fracking in Ireland reeks of hypocrisy. If Ireland imports fracked gas at the Shannon LNG terminal, it will be locking itself into more than a decade of complicity in harming the people and children of Pennsylvania. In recent months the Pittsburgh Post-Gazettehas investigated and found at least 67 diagnoses of cancers, some of which are extremely rare, in children in just four rural, heavily fracked counties of the state. Health professionals are alarmed by this. As I previously stated, there are now more 1,500 scientific studies and reports in the United States which overwhelmingly show the harm caused by fracking. It includes disastrous impacts on the climate caused by the release of methane. As Professor Howarth stated, combined with the processes of fracking and the transport and distribution of LNG, methane leakages make fracked gas considerably worse for the climate than coal.

As we, in the United States, work to protect public health and the safety of Americans by having fracking banned nationally, I ask the committee, Members of the Dáil and the public to, please, continue speaking out and working together to stop this project from gaining the final permits and to pass a law banning the use of all US fracked gas in Ireland. Our health and well-being are at stake. That is why I am here.