LNG plant needed for  national energy security

If the unhinged President of the United States has taught us anything in the last few weeks, it’s that Ireland’s energy security exists only in name, is nothing but a pretence and entirely empty of substance.

We don’t produce oil, coal or turf and we import around 80% of our gas requirement. Therefore we are almost entirely reliant on fossil fuel imports to keep the country running, to keep the lights on in our hospitals and schools, to keep us warm in our homes.

And there is absolutely no way of sugar-coating that, despite the desire of all reasonable people to move to net carbon emissions, nationally, as soon as possible.

Currently around 40% of our national electricity demand is produced by renewables, mainly by way of windfarms which we’re very familiar with here in Kerry.

So, things are moving in the right direction, but slowly. And until we get there, the unfortunate reality is that we’ll be requiring carbon fuels for many more years into the future.

Which is why the decision by the High Court to dismiss a Judicial Review challenge by Friends of the Irish Environment against the granting of planning permission for the building of a 600-megawatt LNG plant in Ballylongford is important.

We’re all aware of how this proposal for such a plant has been in and out of the courts for years, so many times that one wondered if the matter would ever be finalised.

This latest decision appears to bring resolution – the LNG plant promoters are now cleared to get on with it.

Given that we’ll be needing some form of carbon fuels to back up the obvious gaps that occur when renewables simply can’t produce – like when there’s no wind or the sun dips in the west – the High Court decision can be seen as a major advance in the pursuit of a rational energy security strategy.

Trump’s war on Iran has shown how fragile the whole oil supply system is. It has also demonstrated the need to move more and more towards renewables. But that’ll take years. In the meantime, we have to keep the economy going and keep ourselves warm and comfortable in our homes.

That’s why we need back-up exactly like the LNG power plant proposed for Ballylongford. Thinking otherwise is simply pie-in-the-sky, delusional nonsense.

Now the promoters of this Ballylongford power plant should be allowed to move quickly and develop it.