The Environmental Defense Fund Makes It Harder to Reduce Emissions

The group has obstructed critical projects designed to move cleaner energy to consumers who need it

Letter to the WSJ. 

"I agree with the premise of Fred Krupp’s May 22 op-ed (“Natural Gas Is Escaping Into Thin Air”) that reducing methane emissions is an essential priority. It is, after all, the product that natural-gas producers are selling. Operators throughout the Appalachian Basin—America’s largest and least-methane intensive natural gas producing region—have invested billions to do exactly that.

But what Mr. Krupp fails to acknowledge is that many of the infrastructure constraints he laments are the direct result of opposition campaigns supported by his organization, the Environmental Defense Fund, and its allies.

While Mr. Krupp notes that energy companies “haven’t built the infrastructure” to bring gas to market, his organization has intervened against major pipeline projects like the Constitution Pipeline, which can safely transport abundant, low-emission natural gas into New York and New England. For nearly a decade, activist organizations have litigated, delayed and obstructed critical infrastructure projects designed to move cleaner American energy to consumers who need it most.

The result? New England consumers continue to face some of the nation’s highest winter energy prices while the region periodically turns to higher-emitting fuel oil and imported liquefied natural gas to meet demand. Imports from countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, for example, have a methane intensity four times higher than Pennsylvania-produced natural gas.

Constructive engagement on emissions is welcome. But the Environmental Defense Fund can’t simultaneously lecture industry about inadequate infrastructure while working to block the projects needed to improve reliability, lower emissions and strengthen American energy security. If we are serious about reducing emissions, the solution isn’t less natural gas—it is more modern infrastructure to deliver it efficiently and responsibly.

Jim Welty

President, Marcellus Shale Coalition"