Community groups call out Penn America, “No LNG in Delco!”
June 6, 2025 – Chester, PA – Last week, CEO of Penn America, Franc James, boasted to the press that he met with White House officials about his project to build a colossal LNG export terminal in Delaware County, PA. Penn America’s $7+ billion, 60+ acre project would process 100 million cubic feet of gas daily to export overseas. Community opposition groups and local leaders continue to argue that there is absolutely no room in this region for an LNG facility which would directly expose residents to explosion risk and more pollution.
Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living, a group fighting for environmental justice in the City of Chester, found out about this project back in 2022 and has been actively organizing with other groups in the region against it, educating the community and meeting with local officials. Penn America has been trying to make inroads in Chester since 2016, and originally planned for a site in Chester riverfront, but is now also considering Eddystone or Marcus Hook as potential sites.
“This major project would impact residents with explosion risk, pollution and decreased quality of life,” said CRCQL Chairperson, Zulene Mayfield. “It would lower property values and discourage people from remaining or relocating to this region. Coupled with the fact of two recent hospital closures and no access to a trauma center would increase the dangers of having such a large hazardous gasification plant in Delaware County.”
At the Pennsylvania LNG task force hearing at Widener University in August 2023, both Mayfield and Chester Mayor, Stefan Roots, spoke out against a facility being sited in Chester. “As a Chester elected official, I take public health and public safety very seriously,” Mayor Roots said. “The health and safety of Chester residents have been compromised by local industry for too long,” he continued. “Our residents are sick. We exceed in every measurable health disparity: asthma, birth defects, COPD, infant mortality, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, and a shorter life expectancy.”
Typically LNG facilities are located on the Gulf or coastline on large tracts of land, usually with hundreds of acres of buffer from populations. This would be the largest LNG export facility on the east coast and located on a highly trafficked river. “Impacts that would result from the development of the proposed Penn America LNG Export facility include toxic air and water pollution and the inevitable degradation of the region’s environment,” said Tracy Carluccio, Deputy Director, Delaware Riverkeeper Network. “The threat to public safety from the transport, storage, processing, transloading, and shipping of this highly dangerous gas cannot be safely done in our densely populated southeastern Pennsylvania region. There is absolutely no place to locate such a massive project that won’t pose unacceptable risks to the people and the environment here. That’s why the federal government advises these get placed in remote locations, far from vulnerable areas.”
Mayfield referenced the massive explosion at an LNG export facility in Freeport, Texas in 2022 that had devastating impacts on local residents. “We are in contact with communities in Louisiana and Texas that are living next to these types of facilities. They are all the same – come in with promises of jobs and economic growth – residents we talk to say it has only created more problems and led to decreased property values and more pollution.”
As far as the promised job creation and energy independence that Penn America and Senator McCormick praise, Mayfield states, “They are all false promises. These jobs require years of experience in LNG facilities which our local residents do not have. All of this gas is being exported overseas for private profit at the expense of Pennsylvanians’ lives.”
Learn more about this project and how to get involved in stopping it at NoLNGDelco.c
