Government Must Withdraw Planning Bill Amendments Supporting LNG

Proposed amendments at odds with what Minister Ryan told the Oireachtas just last week

Today the Government is proposing significant new amendments relating to polluting fossil fuel infrastructure as part of the Planning Bill at Report Stage in the Seanad. Friends of the Earth strongly opposes the Government’s rushed introduction of amendments relating to development of a polluting Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal and is calling for their immediate withdrawal.

The new amendments [1] provide for an LNG terminal to be designated as strategic infrastructure, potentially allowing for the normal planning process to be circumvented. If approved and applied, the provisions may also allow for LNG development to be fast-tracked and for normal environmental assessment rules to be dropped. The amendments appear to run roughshod over the Government’s own climate commitments in its November 2023 Energy Security Package.

 

Responding to the amendment, Jerry Mac Evilly, Head of Policy in Friends of the Earth said,

“Friends of the Earth is calling on Minister Ryan to immediately withdraw the proposed group of amendments relating to polluting LNG. Why is the Government seeking to legislate for fast-tracked planning of LNG while failing to legislate for key climate conditions on gas infrastructure outlined in its own Energy Security Review? As Senator Higgins has noted – why, despite the Government’s rejection of the likes of Shannon LNG, is there nothing in the amendments that precludes a polluting commercial facility?

“The amendments are also completely out of line with Minister Ryan’s own statements in the Oireachtas just last week, when he raised significant doubts regarding the previously suggested security benefits of LNG given it would take years to develop. 

“Minister Ryan actually said last week that ‘LNG is not a strategic priority’ and yet these amendments specifically designate LNG as ‘strategic infrastructure’."

 

Minister Ryan highlighted in the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment and Climate Action last Thursday [2] that there are now significant doubts as to the need for any such gas infrastructure. He emphasised that “One of the issues I am considering further, on which I need to get further research and information, relates to the timeline for introducing such a facility and the timelines within which gas demand may fall to reduce the risk. That has to be examined very closely.” He noted that while there may be short-term risks “It would not be possible to deliver a facility until early in the next decade” by which time we may have “a dramatic reduction in gas use, particularly in the electricity generation sector”

The Minister also underlined that further analysis was necessary as to “an alternative way to meet the security risk”, explaining that expected improvements in the electricity system thanks to new renewables and interconnectors have significantly changed the picture in terms of gas needs. He emphasised that LNG “is not a strategic priority for this Government, or I believe for the next Government”.

ENDS

 

Notes

1. Amendment 165 in this list: https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/bill/2023/81/seanad/4/amendment/numberedList/eng/b81bx23d-srnl.pdf, relating to this section of the Bill: Section 82 (pg. 200) section 129 subsection (7) Second Schedule (article 15, pg. 737).
2.  https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/joint_committee_on_environment_and_climate_action/2024-09-19/2/