Petition to be delivered to PHMSA on March 31, 2022, so please sign before then.

Background:
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued a federal rule on July 24, 2020 that lifted the long-standing ban on LNG transport by rail (Docket PHMSA-2018-0025 (HM-264)). The federal rule authorized the bulk transportation of LNG by rail tank car for carriers nationwide, following a 2019 executive order by then-President Trump directing the Department of Transportation to authorize the movement of LNG by rail car to boost the energy industry and LNG exports (the “Trump Rule”).

The Biden Administration’s PHMSA issued a proposed rule to suspend the Trump Rule (while they research safety issues) with a comment period that closed in December 2021 (Docket PHMSA-2021-0058 (HM-264A)). As of the date of this petition, there has not been a PHMSA decision on the suspension. Thus, we call on PHMSA to adopt the rule that will suspend the Trump Rule.

Prior to the Trump Rule, a Special Permit (Special Permit DOT-SP 20534), the first of its kind, was issued for transport of LNG by rail car from Wyalusing, PA to Gibbstown, NJ for a proposed LNG export terminal on the Delaware River. The Special Permit expired November 30, 2021 and PHMSA is currently deciding how to handle the application. We are calling on PHMSA to deny the request for this Special Permit.

Transportation of LNG in rail cars is a reckless decision that exposes millions of people and vulnerable resources to the potentially catastrophic effects of a release of LNG. The Special Permit for the Gibbstown LNG export terminal proposed up to 100-car unit trains twice a day through many communities of color and low-income populations already overburdened with environmental injustices. Just 22 tank cars hold the equivalent energy of the Hiroshima bomb (which is why they are dubbed “bomb trains”).

LNG is liquefied methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas (GHG) 86 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in heating the atmosphere on a 20-year time scale and 104 times more powerful over a 10-year period, the periods of time when scientists say we must reduce GHG emissions to address the climate crisis. Methane leaks and/or is vented in all phases of the LNG production process, including storage, transport, transloading and use. The Biden administration has pledged to slash methane emissions. Pushing LNG onto train tracks, enabling export of LNG overseas, and stepping up gas extraction does the opposite.

We further call on PHMSA to adopt further rulemaking to permanently and categorically ban transport of LNG on our nation’s railways. This ban must prevent the approval of any and all separately issued LNG by rail Special Permits for the same public safety, environmental and climate reasons, including SP 20534, because they endanger our communities and the environment.

The Ukraine crisis has recently put LNG into the spotlight as a fuel that could be exported to Europe. Oil and gas interests and their allies in Congress are pushing the narrative that LNG exports equal energy security, even though they admit in the fine print that it would take years to put in place the necessary infrastructure.

Those are the same precious few years we have left to address the climate crisis. The real path to energy security is a rapid and just transition to alternative energy.

But that’s not how the industry or its allies see it. And so as pressure mounts to start exporting LNG to Europe, PHMSA may be pressured to back off of any action that would stop the movement of LNG by rail. And that puts communities on or even near the path of those trains at risk of suffering the impacts of catastrophic failures.

Please help us send a strong message to President Biden and PHMSA that we want an end to Trump-era actions on LNG transport that put our communities and planet at risk. Please sign the petition and share it with your friends.