Experts, officials and residents urge lawmakers to stop proposed Penn America LNG export terminal on Delaware River

CHESTER, Pa. — Scientists, health researchers, consumer advocates and local leaders told the Pennsylvania House Environmental and Natural Resources Protection Committee on Friday that a proposed Penn America liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal along the Delaware River would pose substantial safety, health, climate and ratepayer risks for Southeastern Pennsylvania.

The hearing brought testimony from Mayor Stefan Roots of Chester; climate scientist Robert Howarth of Cornell University; Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network; Lauren Minsky, a health-studies faculty member at Haverford College; Liz Marks of the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project; and community advocates who described decades of local industrial pollution.

Those testifying urged the committee to weigh three types of harms: the facility's immediate public-safety and local-health consequences; the greenhouse-gas and methane emissions associated with producing, liquefying and shipping gas abroad; and the effect of expanded U.S. LNG exports on domestic gas and electricity prices.

"I am here to strongly and emphatically say no to LNG in or near our city," Mayor Stefan Roots said, noting Chester's ongoing redevelopment and designation as an environmental-justice community. "It would be devastating to our city's progress to put a ticking time bomb LNG terminal on our waterfront in close proximity to our residents, our visitors, and workers."

Dr. Robert Howarth, who testified remotely, summarized his life-cycle analysis of U.S. LNG exports and emphasized methane's climate role. "Methane has contributed 30% of all of the global warming that has occurred since the industrial revolution in the United States," he said, and argued that methane leakage during production, liquefaction and shipping makes LNG exports especially damaging to near-term warming.

Tracy Carluccio outlined what she described as incomplete and imprecise public disclosures from the company, and cited project parameters that Penn America has publicly proposed: sourcing primarily from the Marcellus and Utica shales, processing up to 1,000,000,000 cubic feet of gas per day, exporting roughly 7,200,000 metric tons of LNG per year, and operating for about 20 years. Carluccio highlighted upstream fracking waste streams, documented pipeline incidents in Pennsylvania, the dangers of large vapor clouds from LNG releases, and the need for remote siting to protect dense populations.

Dr. Lauren Minsky presented air-quality and health screening data for Southeastern Delaware County and said the region shows elevated signals for cancers and respiratory diseases common in studies of fence-line industrial exposures. She cited EPA screening indices, a March 2025 Johns Hopkins study identifying dozens of volatile organic compounds in local air monitoring, and concluded that additional industrial emissions in the riverfront corridor would worsen public-health harms.

Elizabeth "Liz" Marks of the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project testified on energy affordability. Her organization represents low-income utility customers and, she said, has documented large increases in involuntary utility terminations after gas-price spikes in 2022–23. "The continued expansion of LNG export capacity is forcing Pennsylvanians to compete on the world market for the gas extracted from their backyard," Marks said, linking export growth to higher commodity and retail energy costs and to increased risk of service disconnections for low-income households.

James Hyatt, who traveled from Lake Charles, La., described long-term community impacts near Gulf Coast LNG terminals: higher local pollution, recurring incidents and limited local economic benefit after construction. "These projects were sold to us as engines of prosperity. Instead, they have brought suffering in the forms of air pollution, damaged fisheries, and destroyed wetlands," Hyatt said, recounting enforcement and incident histories in Louisiana.

Zulene ("Zalene") Mayfield, chair of Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living, gave emotional testimony about the cumulative burden of multiple polluting facilities in Chester, recent hospital closures, and deaths in the community she and others attribute to environmental exposures. "We bury them. You all talk about statistics and what is good for this community. We are burying 38-year-old men," Mayfield said.

Witnesses referenced federal and state legal frameworks during testimony. Carluccio and others cited the Clean Air Act and the Pennsylvania Environmental Rights Amendment (Article I, Section 27). Marks referenced the Federal Natural Gas Act of 1938 and a Department of Energy review of LNG export approvals.

No formal vote or committee action was recorded at the hearing. Committee leaders said the hearing was a fact-finding, public-record proceeding; members asked clarifying questions of witnesses about siting options, alternatives and the domestic-market effects of expanded exports.

The hearing included repeated testimony that the densely populated Delaware River corridor — and its existing industrial facilities and historically poor air-quality indicators — make the proposed site inappropriate for a large LNG export operation. Presenters and residents asked legislators to consider cumulative impacts and to require fuller public disclosure and independent analysis before any permit or approval moves forward.

The committee adjourned after closing remarks; there was no immediate schedule for follow-up votes or staff directives announced at the hearing.