Several speakers at energy-hub summit suggest listening to environmentalists, too
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
Protesters from 19 green groups rallied outside conference on Drexel University campus
Protesters outside energy hub meeting at Drexel University
Charles Mosteller
Charles Mosteller
The noisy scene outside the student center at Drexel University appeared to be just the latest installment in the long-running confrontation between the natural-gas industry and its opponents in the environmental movement.
The meeting of energy executives, bankers, politicians and academics last Friday was held to attract investors to Philadelphia's proposed "energy hub," where natural gas and its associated liquids from Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale would be pumped, processed and exported — to be used as fuel for a resurgent manufacturing industry.
Inside the Creese Student Center, some 250 participants were given a day-long sales pitch from the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and the South Philadelphia refiner Philadelphia Energy Solutions at a conference called "Greater Philadelphia: The Next Energy Hub."
Outside, on Chestnut Street, about 150 demonstrators from 19 environmental groups marched up and down, waving "no fracking" signs and calling for investment in renewable fuels rather than natural gas. Speakers accused the industry of being rapacious capitalists who recklessly pursue fossil-fuel development at grave risk to the environment.
The street protesters seemed to be in no mood to find common ground with the energy industry executives inside the meeting, but a surprising number of speakers at the conference acknowledged the environmental risks of natural gas development and urged the industry to take its opponents' concerns seriously.
"There are potential environmental impacts associated with natural gas development," said Carol Collier, senior advisor for Watershed Management and Policy at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, during a panel discussion. "I think we need to listen to them," she said, referring to the environmental groups.
Collier, the former executive director of the Delaware River Basin Commission, an interstate water-quality regulator, argued that the industry's environmentalist opponents are not a bunch of wild-eyed idealists with a tenuous grip on reality, as sometimes claimed by energy-industry leaders.
Most environmentalists understand that there doesn't have to be a trade-off between economic growth and environmental quality, and so could become industry supporters but only if they are included in the conversation over natural gas development in general, and the energy hub in particular, Collier said.
"If you can get more people to the table, you have more openness, and trust is built up," she said.
While the protesters on the sidewalk were not allowed into the conference, their concerns were also acknowledged by Drexel President John Fry, who urged participants to recognize the environmental and legal issues associated with constructing the many new pipelines, petrochemical plants and factories that would contribute to the hub.
"We have to look dispassionately at the environmental risks from gas production and transportation," Fry said in an opening speech. He argued that academic units such as Drexel's new Institute for Energy and the Environment are well placed to provide the analysis that could guide development of the hub.
And Daniel Yergin, a prominent energy analyst for the consulting firm IHS, who said the hub represented a major opportunity for Philadelphia, also urged boosters to recognize the environmental costs of natural gas development.
"There are environmental issues that need to be managed by state regulators," Yergin said in a keynote speech.
While some speakers urged industry leaders to be more open about their plans for the energy hub, the conference itself was closed to most of the media. And reporters were barred from a reception where participants had the opportunity to talk business.
Despite organizers' predictions that the event would be short on chat and long on the kind of information that would help drive investment decisions, the presentations lacked specifics — such as the total anticipated investment in the hub, how many jobs it would create, when it would be built, and to what extent it would boost the local economy.
Instead, participants were offered videos and panel discussions with senior representatives from the energy industry and supporting organizations, including the CSX freight railroad, the local AFL-CIO and investment bank Morgan Stanley.
If some conference speakers were holding out an olive branch, the protesters themselves did not seem to be in a mood to compromise.
In an open letter to conference attendees, the environmentalists warned would-be investors that a Philadelphia energy hub might not be the golden opportunity claimed by its boosters, and that opponents were a determined and effective force who would resist the project every step of the way.
"A well-developed grassroots movement has for years been resisting shale gas development in our watershed, and facilities such as liquefied natural gas plants, frack wastewater processing plants and Philadelphia infrastructure for fracked shale gas," the letter said.
It argued that the extent and profitability of the Marcellus Shale has been exaggerated; that gas reserves may become uneconomic to extract as demand falls in response to growing concern over climate change; and that the failure of the city to privatize Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) is the latest example of City Council's history of responding to community concerns.
"Our city has a long history of citizen activism, from the earliest days of our nation through the abolition movement to many contemporary movements for peace and justice," the letter said. "We have been developing plans since July 2013 to resist this newly energized effort to develop our city as a fossil fuel energy hub."
Philip Rinaldi, chief executive of Philadelphia Energy Solutions, and a prime mover of the energy hub concept, said the Council's conduct of the sale of PGW — which could have been an important part of the energy hub — sends an unfortunate message about the city's ability to do business with the outside world.
But Rinaldi predicted in an interview that investor interest in the energy hub will survive the PGW debacle, and noted that Council President Darrell Clarke — who was widely attacked for his summary rejection of the PGW sale — had written a letter expressing support for the wider energy hub project.
Asked to respond to environmentalists' argument that the hub would represent a massive rejection of a global move away from fossil fuels at a time of rising concern about climate change, Rinaldi accused the protesters of ignoring the crucial importance of coal, oil and natural gas as the backbone of energy supply.
"Their positions are generated by their heart and they don't bear any resemblance to the facts," he said. "I'm happy that they are able to express their opinion but they're just wrong."
