No Reason To Celebrate

194

December 22, 2022

Published in Frankfurter Rundschau
(Germany) on 18 December 2022
by Jan Emendörfer (link to original link to original)

Translated from by Mallory Matsumoto. Edited by Lisa Attanasio.

Liquid natural gas from the U.S. is not only more expensive than gas from a pipeline, but it is also extracted and transported under dubious environmental conditions.

With the first German shipping terminal for liquid natural gas in Wilhelmshaven, Germany is making itself a little more independent from Russian gas and expanding its sources. That’s a good thing. But there is no reason to celebrate. LNG from the U.S. is not only more expensive than pipeline gas, but it is also extracted and transported under dubious environmental conditions (keyword: fracking). Transporting LNG with crude oil-burning tankers is itself an environmental sin that can only be tolerated given the brutal Russian war of invasion against Ukraine.

Environmental groups are criticizing the speed of fossil fuel infrastructure projects and wish that this speed would instead be applied to abandoning coal. Another criticism is that the special ship for LNG, “Höegh Esperanza,” is expelling wastewater that has been treated with biocides.

We must keep in mind that Wihelmshaven is just a small step that quickly needs to be followed by others. Germany was obtaining more than 50% of its natural gas from Russia. One new terminal alone cannot offset those losses.

Kein Grund für Euphorie

Wenn das Flüssiggas aus den USA kommt, ist es nicht nur teurer als Pipelinegas, sondern es wird auch unter fragwürdigen Umweltbedingungen gewonnen und transportiert. Der Kommentar.
Mit dem ersten deutschen Terminal für Flüssigerdgas (LNG) in Wilhelmshaven macht sich Deutschland ein kleines Stück unabhängiger von russischem Gas und erweitert seine Bezugsquellen. Gut so. Doch es gibt keinen Anlass für Euphorie. Wenn das Flüssiggas aus den USA kommt, ist es nicht nur teurer als Pipelinegas, sondern es wird auch unter fragwürdigen Umweltbedingungen – Stichwort Fracking – gewonnen. Der Transport des Gases mit Schweröl verbrennenden Tankern ist an sich eine Umweltsünde, die nur unter den Bedingungen des brutalen russischen Angriffskrieges gegen die Ukraine tolerierbar ist.
Umweltverbände kritisieren die Geschwindigkeit“ bei fossilen Infrastrukturprojekten und wünschen sich dieses Tempo für den Ausstieg aus der Kohle. Auch gibt es Kritik, dass von der „Höegh Esperanza“ mit Bioziden behandelte Abwässer eingeleitet werden.
Nüchtern betrachtet, ist Wilhelmshaven ein erster kleiner Schritt, dem rasch weitere folgen müssen. Deutschland bezog über 50 Prozent seines Gases aus Russland. Das ist mit einem neuen Terminal nicht zu kompensieren.

This post appeared on the front page as a direct link to the original article with the above link .

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