PA House Environmental Committee examines impacts of potential LNG export terminal
Rep. Greg Vitali November 5, 2025 | 11:54 AM
CHESTER, Nov. 5 – The state House Environmental & Natural Resource Protection Committee held a public hearing today at Chester City Hall on the potential health, environmental and ratepayer impacts of a Liquified Natural Gas export terminal proposed for southeastern Pennsylvania.
According to the committee chair, state Rep. Greg Vitali, the already environmentally overburdened Delaware County municipalities of Chester, Eddystone and Marcus Hook have been speculated as possible locations for Penn America Energy to build an LNG export terminal designed to accommodate large LNG carrier ships. The communities offer easy access to the Delaware River but are already designated as Environmental Justice areas due to the air, land and water pollution burden of existing industry. LNG facilities are known to increase poor air quality due to emissions, and the potential for gas leaks creates a rare but present danger to surrounding communities from asphyxiation or explosion.
Vitali, D-Delaware, said that while the state is rich in shale gas, Pennsylvanians are paying the price in climate damage and increased environmental pollution.
“While Pennsylvania has been a large producer of shale gas, the climate impact outweighs the returned economic value,” Vitali said. “The testimony that we’ve heard today supports the point that even though the industry touts natural gas as a solution to climate change versus coal and oil, LNG is actually one of the most polluting forms of energy when the full supply chain is taken into account.”
Dr. Robert Howarth, professor of ecology and environmental biology at Cornell University, presented the environmental costs of production and transport of liquefied natural gas with the perspective of the global community on the continued use of fossil fuels.
“Production of shale gas, as well as liquefaction to make LNG and LNG transport by tanker, is energy-intensive, which contributes significantly to the LNG greenhouse gas footprint,” said Howarth. “Increasingly, leaders on global climate policy are calling for a rapid move away from all fossil fuels, including natural gas and not just coal. With an even greater greenhouse gas footprint than natural gas, ending the use of LNG should be a global priority.”
Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, testified to the history of safety concerns and environmental damage that natural gas production has caused across Pennsylvania.
“Natural gas is classified as a hazardous substance and carries never-ending safety threats,” said Carluccio. “There were 108 pipeline safety incidents in Pennsylvania between 2010 and 2018, causing eight fatalities and $66,932,124 in property damage. It’s clear this project is not clean, not carbon neutral, is unsafe, and the company has not interfaced with the people who would be most impacted.”
Lauren Minsky, visiting assistant professor of health studies at Haverford College, was emphatic about the detrimental health effects than an LNG facility would bring to southeastern Pennsylvania.
“We know based on permits from other LNG export facilities, this proposed facility will add considerable quantities of even more of the toxic pollutants that are already in the air and are already seriously harming residents’ health,” said Minsky. “If we value the health of our families, friends and neighbors in Delaware County, we should not be building a future in which growing numbers of parents are burying their children. Building a healthy future means that there is absolutely no room for Penn America’s LNG plant – not in Chester, not in Eddystone, not in Marcus Hook, not in South Philly, not in Gibbstown, not anywhere.”
James Hiatt, founder of Southwest Louisiana community organization For a Better Bayou, described the reality of the broken promises of prosperity that multiple LNG terminals have brought to his Gulf communities.
“In Southwest Louisiana there are now three operating LNG export terminals, with two more under construction,” explained Hiatt. “These projects were sold to us as engines of prosperity. Instead, they’ve brought suffering in the forms of air pollution, damaged fisheries and destroyed wetlands. We were promised opportunity; what we got was sacrifice. I hope Pennsylvania will heed this warning. The promise of LNG is short-lived; its consequences are generational.”
Liz Marx, executive director of the PA Utility Law Project, discussed the impact that LNG exports have had for ratepayers and the effect of rising costs on utility service terminations.
“The continued expansion of LNG export capacity is forcing Pennsylvanians to compete on the world market for the gas extracted from their backyard,” Marx explained. “The increase in LNG exports not only affects retail gas rates, it also has a significant impact on electricity rates, as 60% of Pennsylvania’s electricity is generated by gas-fired power plants. Following the spike in gas rates from 2022-2023, involuntary gas terminations increased 40% year over year – resulting in a staggering number of Pennsylvania families without basic gas service.”
Zulene Mayfield, chairperson of Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living, has been fighting for environmental justice and an end to polluting industries in Chester for years.
“Do we not have the right to determine what we want in our communities?” asked Mayfield. “This community has had to withstand these battles for years. Demanding our right to breathe and live just like any other community. We are not statistics… our children matter, our community matters. People over pollution.”