Philadelphia an Unlikely Hub for LNG Exports

• Susan Phillips
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  Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

The Port of Philadelphia’s chances of becoming home to a liquefied natural gas export terminal are pretty slim, according to energy executives pitching Marcellus Shale gas to Chilean energy companies. On Wednesday, the energy company executives met with officials from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, PJM Interconnection, Philadelphia Energy Solutions and Sunoco Logistics at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.  Philadelphia Energy Solutions CEO Phil Rinaldi laid out the prospects of a Philadelphia-based export terminal this way:
“Technically it’s very possible,” said Rinaldi. “Economically, it may be possible. Politically, it would be very difficult.”
Last week the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that brokers trying to sell Philadelphia Gas Works are marketing it as potential liquefied natural gas export terminal. But if that were to happen, the project would cost billions of dollars and be forced to get in line behind about 17 other proposals now awaiting approval by the Department of Energy.
One of those proposals, Dominion’s Cove Point, Maryland import terminal, would likely take precedence. Dominion’s Chesapeake Bay facility would not have to be built from scratch and is connected to a pipeline system that serves the gas fields in upstate Pennsylvania. Robert Powelson, chair of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission says the D.O.E will likely approve about 8 additional export terminals. Two Gulf Coast export facilities have already gotten the green light.
Before the state’s shale gas boom, PGW floated the idea of a liquefied natural gas import facility in Port Richmond, but that plan garnered intense public opposition.
Rinaldi did say the future could hold possibilities for smaller LNG facilities in Philadelphia, which would serve domestic trucking fleets, but not exports.

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