“Every corner of this world could benefit from clean American natural gas not just environmentally, but also from a national security standpoint,” Marcellus Shale Coalition President Dave Callahan said on air with the Philadelphia-based Labor & Energy Show.
As geopolitical turmoil rocked the global energy market with nations cutting ties to Russia-controlled supply, American natural gas has come to the rescue. Responding to this growing demand from international markets, U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity has expanded annually and positioned America among the top three exporting countries in the world, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Adding more American natural gas to the global market has facilitated both economic opportunity and environmental progress. In return, communities with export terminals benefit from capital investment and job creation.
So why haven’t we seen more of that growth take place in the mid-Atlantic area?
Home to the country’s largest natural gas producing region, Appalachia should be leading America’s charge in supplying low-cost, clean LNG to the world. Yet much of the nation’s export growth has occurred along the Gulf Coast.
Permitting bottlenecks, court challenges, and other hurdles have held Pennsylvania back from reaching its full energy potential. Afterall, the Commonwealth is second only to Texas in terms of production and, we produce it more sustainably than anywhere else on the planet.
“The magnitude of Marcellus Shale gas in enormous. We have the opportunity by using LNG, to provide energy security here at home and to the world,” John Bane, EQT Director of Government Affairs and MSC Board Chairman, said on the Labor & Energy Show.
“We could put LNG on water, but we don’t have the facility or pipelines to do so. We can be self-sufficient all while sharing with the world,” he continued.
Indeed, an estimated 3,863 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered, technically recoverable resources of natural gas are located in the Appalachian Basin, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s estimated proved reserves analysis. This abundance – representing 39% of America’s total estimated supply – offers the opportunity to continue investing in both domestic use of natural gas and for LNG export.
By opening access to the sea via a terminal in the Philadelphia area, we could expand economic opportunity and create quality jobs with the building trades. At the local level, having an export terminal would spur additional growth and opportunity for community-based businesses, both large and small.
“We have a vested interest in building Pennsylvania up to be an economic development engine for the East Coast,” Rob Bair, President of the Pennsylvania Building Trades said.
Success mirroring Maryland’s Cove Point LNG terminal – with roughly 3,000 jobs during the construction period and $125 million in value added annually during construction – could be found here so long as the political will to do so exists.
Luckily, some state officials see the potential such infrastructure could bring, and work is already under way to make this vision a reality.
In 2022, the Philadelphia LNG Export Task Force was established to research the viability of an export facility in the region and what it would provide to the local and state economy.
“We can support our allies overseas, work toward a lower-carbon future, and strengthen our state’s economy by establishing a liquefied natural gas export terminal in the Port of Philadelphia,” former State Representative Becky Corbin wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer this week.
“For jobs, economic growth, and emissions reductions, we need progress on important projects like this in Pennsylvania,” she continued.
As a state, we must come together and back the development of LNG infrastructure. As a region, Appalachia is poised and ready to provide the world with clean and abundant natural gas but can only do so if we invest in this essential product – and the means to move it around the globe.
