Biden’s pause on LNG approvals may have ‘saved Chester,’ the city’s new mayor says

President Joe Biden’s decision to pause federal approval of liquefied natural gas plants may have cost the desperately broke bankrupt City of Chester and Pennsylvania hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues and hundreds of jobs.

And the newly inaugurated mayor couldn’t be happier.

“I think he saved Chester,” said Stefan Roots, who took office earlier this month. While some were encouraged by the prospect of hosting the plant, he said doing so would be “game-over, because no one would want to come here.” Chester already is home to an incinerator and a waste-treatment plant.

In making his controversial decision, Biden said he would “heed the calls of young people” and take aim at quelling “the climate crisis ... the existential threat of our time.” But in Chester, opposition to siting an LNG plant along its historic waterfront is more about the potential hazards, said Roots. “You’re not only putting us in danger, you’re contributing to our health disparity.”

» READ MORE: An August hearing on LNG turned into a protest rally in Chester

Said Zulene Mayfield, a longtime Chester activist who has organized anti-LNG protests, “We’re still cautious. ... It’s an election year. It’s a pause. We want to celebrate it, but our head is still on a swivel. We’re keeping our eyes open.”

Biden said that during the “pause,” which could affect several pending projects, “we will take a hard look at the impacts of LNG exports on energy costs, America’s energy security, and our environment.”

His edict has drawn considerable blow-back from business interests and some politicians.

In statement, state Rep. Martina White (R., Philadelphia), chair of the LNG task force appointed by then-Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, said: “This horrible policy decision by the Biden administration will cost tens of thousands of family-sustaining union jobs.”

The opposition hasn’t been all partisan.

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.), chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he would convene a hearing “to unveil the facts about the administration’s motivations, and their implications.”

Plants constructed along the Gulf Coast use massive refrigeration units to cool natural gas sufficiently to liquify it. It then is stored and shipped in insulated tanks and reheated into vapor form. The nation has seven LNG export terminals, and the nearest large-scale LNG plant is in Cove Point, Md., on the west bank of the Chesapeake Bay.

LNG proponents say it is gentler on the environment than traditional fossil fuels.

According to the Energy Information Administration, “Natural gas has many qualities that make it an efficient, relatively clean burning, and economical energy source. However, the production and use of natural gas have some environmental and safety issues to consider.”

Environmentalists contend that all the processing and shipping represents a major source of pollution and greenhouse gases. They also say that potential explosions present eminent danger to residents.

Chester never was identified officially as a prospective site. However, as The Inquirer reported, a New York firm headed by a Philadelphia native, has wanted to build an export terminal along the waterfront in Chester or a neighboring area to exploit the state’s shale gas supplies and escalating worldwide demand.

» READ MORE: The prospective LNG plant was a well-kept secret

White’s task force held a hearing in Chester in August ostensibly about the LNG concept, but it turned into a raucous anti-LNG protest by a standing-room-only crowd.

The holding of that hearing in Chester persuaded Roots that the city’s riverfront was a serious candidate for the plant.

“I always thought this was a pipe dream until the task force showed up,” he said. “Then I realized, this is real. It’s already down the road. The fact that they would even target Chester as a location just shows you the disrespect that people have way above our heads here in the city,” Roots said. Chester’s population is more than 75% Black.

Environmentalists and social-justice advocates have long held that the preponderance of waste facilities have been sited in and near lower-income communities of color. Philadelphia recently created an Environmental Justice Advisory Commission to address that issue.

Mayfield said Biden acted because residents of Chester and other communities where LNG plants are located or targeted had raised their voices. “He didn’t just think of that,” said Mayfield. “There’s been pressure.”

Making an anatomical reference, she added, “Everyone wants to put a pause on things, because we’ve put our foot up their ... "