Gas debate sets City Hall on fire

Cork’s energy dependence, and specifically the potential development of liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals in the region, sparked a heated debate in City Hall recently.

One side of the chamber argued this fossil fuel infrastructure would harm Cork’s environment, while another raised concerns about dependence on external providers, unstable global politics, and the whims of world leaders who control both.

Green Party Cllr Oliver Moran, who put forward the motion, highlighted that “Trump’s administration has put more of an emphasis in Europe on its own energy independence, and defence”.

There are two ways to go: one is to facilitate LNG offshore in Cork Harbour.

“If we do that, we will be dependent upon imports, more than likely from the United States, and it will more than likely be fracked gas.

“The most likely location for an LNG facility in the region being in Cork county’s functional area, it affects us here in the city. We should discuss with the county — not to locate LNG in the harbour in the functional area, but together to focus on our own offshore wind development.”

Cllr Moran’s motion reads that Cork, as a “Mission City to be climate neutral by 2030, Cork City Council is opposed to the development of liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals as new fossil fuel infrastructure, and will work to ensure no LNG terminals are developed in the Cork region.” Not all of his colleagues in City Hall share this view given the global agenda.

“Germany was the economic engine of Europe for the last 50 or 60 years,” said Fine Gael Cllr Shane O'Callaghan. He referred to Germany’s Green Party initiative, which advocated for elimination of nuclear power plants.

“They made themselves economically dependent for energy from Russia. And then Russia invades Ukraine, one pipeline is blown up — and the other one they just turned off,” highlighted Cllr O'Callaghan.

“Now, Germany is in serious financial difficulty, and when Germany sneezes, the rest of us get a cold, by the way.

“They got rid of nuclear power plants, depended on Russia, and now they have to basically import gas and other fuels from America at a massively increased rate. So, on one side we have Putin, and on the other side we have Trump, who has shown that he’s willing and able to hold Europe to ransom if he wants to — in energy terms and every other way.

“In a perfect world — we’re all for renewable energy, and we should keep going towards that. But I would be totally opposed to essentially cutting off our options like they did in Germany,” concluded Cllr O'Callaghan.

“Germany is not an economic basket case. It’s merely not growing as fast as it hoped. There are not people going around with wheelbarrows of euros. It is still the strongest economy in Europe,” parried former lord mayor of Cork, Green Party Cllr Dan Boyle. “The Green Party was never the majority party in government in Germany. The nuclear power stations were closed by political consensus in that country.”

He added that “the Green Party in government stopped new LNG facilities, and that’s still the road we should be going down. Because to do otherwise would mean not only are we going to be paying these massive costs, we will be adding to our balance of trade deficit by importing, unnecessarily, fossil fuels that we could be replacing ourselves through renewable sources.”

“It’s insanity — the arguments that people are making here. Cork cannot be a centre for renewable energy and a site for LNG energy. That’s a clear choice we should be making as a council. There is no alternative but to look down the route of getting rid of fossil fuels and not encouraging their future use and growth,” emphasised Cllr Boyle.

“We can’t do it at the moment — we’re 20 years behind everywhere else,” replied Independent Cllr Paudie Dineen.

“We’re just treading water. We’re against nuclear power, yet we import nuclear power, right?” asked Fianna Fáil Cllr Terry Shannon. “If we are to be a sovereign nation, we need to be self-sufficient, and I don’t see any reason why we can’t look at our own oil and gas fields, along with renewable energy.

“We’re trying to be the good kids on the block, but we have huge bills coming through the doors now. I don’t see any reason why we can’t have a dual approach to this,” he added.

“Yes, the Ukraine war has shown — the dependency that Europe has had on gas. In fact, I think the German response is something they’re regretting now, there’s no doubt about that,” added Fine Gael Cllr Des Cahill. According to him, ESB is now “saying we need to look at nuclear, which is safer, and if they did, it would be six times the output compared to full-tilt solid fuel, and it’s carbon neutral.”

“It’s impractical to say we can’t do one without the other. Of course, we need to encourage and promote renewable energy as much as we can — and we do. The Government has huge incentives in place for that,” concluded Cllr Cahill.

The Fiscal Council and Climate Change Advisory Council recently issued a joint report, which sets out potential costs of between €8bn and €26bn for Ireland if agreed EU targets on climate action are missed.

This article was produced with the support of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme funded by Coimisiún na Meán.