'This is the back door to introducing fracking into our State, particularly into Leitrim' - local Senator talks trade deal

Hitting out at the potential climate consequences of the recently announced trade deal between the EU and USA, Senator Nessa Cosgrove, Labour Party spokesperson for Rural and Community Development said:

She stated: “While the deal in general leaves much to be desired, I am particularly concerned that the European Union appears to have committed to buying more gas and oil than the trading bloc actually requires, and that the United States can even supply."

She noted that in 2024 the EU got 45% of its LNG from the USA at a cost of $76bn.

She continued: "This deal talks about buying $750bn worth of gas from America, almost 10 times as much. Where is this gas going to be used? What is it going to be used for? There is not the infrastructure to store this amount of gas in Europe. There are not even enough ships to transport it across the Atlantic."

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She added: "It is not even within the gift of the Trump Administration to instruct fossil fuel firms where to sell their gas to. Neither is it within the power of the European Commission to inform energy companies where to buy their energy from. As a policy it does not make sense. This is about something else."

She said that at a time when the European Energy market has "been rapidly decarbonising and moving towards investment in renewables, this is about sending a message to the energy sector that they can slow down on the renewables and invest in fossil fuel infrastructure. This is what environmental activists have been warning about for some time. America will lend us their gas until we are hooked. Then they will tell us we need to exploit our own gas. This is the back door to introducing fracking into our State, particularly into Leitrim. We need to resist this aspect of the deal vociferously. The introduction of fracked gas into the Irish energy mix will drive emissions and prices up and the likelihood of us meeting our climate targets down."

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Senator Cosgrove concluded: "This is not the time to be spending money on expanding our fossil fuel infrastructure. Right now we should be ramping up investment in renewables, and in the smart electrification of the grid so that we can meet our legally binding climate targets.”