Community information forum set on Nanticoke area gas refinery project

WILKES-BARRE — A virtual community information forum concerning the proposed natural gas-to-gasoline refinery to be built in Luzerne County will be held Feb. 24.

Kristin Volchansky, political and advocacy organizer for Action Together NEP, Monday said the event is intended to provide the community with information and raise awareness of the project.

Volchansky said Action Together NEPA, along with Pennsylvania Interfaith Power and Light, and the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Wyoming Valley, will be hosting the online public forum on the quality of life impacts the proposed Nacero refinery will have on residents living nearby.

The online event is set for Thursday Feb. 24, at 7:30 p.m. The ZOOM online meeting registration link is: https://tinyurl.com/3698ewfv

Local municipal leaders are encouraged to attend and to participate in the question-and-answer portion of the meeting.

Scheduled to offer presentations are:

• Scott Cannon, environment steward, Luzerne County resident and business owner, is a corporate and industrial video producer who has been documenting the negative effects of the natural gas infrastructure in our region for more than a decade. His videos have been featured on television shows on the National Geographic and the Weather Channels, and have been used in documentaries from around the world. He hosts a YouTube Channel with a series of videos about people’s struggles with the gas industry called “The Marcellus Shale Reality Tour.”

• Susan Volz, Clean Air Council, has a Master’s of Science Degree from Drexel University. She designed and researched a case study as a graduate thesis entitled — “Fracking regulation in Pennsylvania and Recommending Policy Change: An Examination of Organizational Factors in Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia.” She has extensive knowledge about industrial air pollution.

• Barbara W Brandom, MD, Concerned Health Professionals of Pennsylvania, who after retiring from pediatric anesthesiology, studied climate change and environmental pollution, focusing on Pennsylvania. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Concerned Health Professionals of Pennsylvania.

Volchansky said Action Together NEPA is a grassroots progressive organization dedicated to community action and political advocacy to support bold progressive policies that will preserve our democracy and promote social and economic justice.

Pennsylvania Interfaith Power and Light NEPA (PA IPL) is a regional and state chapter of national Interfaith Power & Light, which envisions a stable climate where humans live in right and just relationship, interconnected with a healthy, thriving, natural world and works to inspire and mobilize people of faith and conscience to take bold and just action on climate change in their communities.

She said the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Wyoming Valley is actively engaged in environmental and social justice issues in the Wyoming Valley. Our mission is to provide a welcoming and supportive community which values and embraces diversity, seeks peace and justice through social action, and nurtures lifelong spiritual growth for ourselves and others.

Nacero, a Texas-based company, announced in October its plan to build a $6 billion manufacturing facility on the site of a former coal mine in the Nanticoke/Newport Township, area that will produce clean gasoline made from natural gas and renewable natural gas and generate thousands of jobs.

The company said the project will bring thousands of jobs and produce tens of thousands of barrels per day of low and zero life-cycle carbon footprint gasoline made from natural gas and renewable natural gas.

Yudichak, Nacero comment

State Sen. John Yudichak, I-Swoyersville, said the $6 billion Nacero plant continues to move forward with the broad, bi-partisan support of local, state, and federal officials.

“Community leaders, and some of the worlds most renowned climate change scientist, recognize Nacero’s innovative manufacturing process that will transform natural gas into gasoline with zero sulfur emissions and a net-zero carbon footprint is a true game changer for Pennsylvania’s Climate Change Action Plan,” Yudichak said. “Radical environmental groups who depend on activism to fund their originations have every right to oppose a project, but they are not entitled to spread disinformation and distort the facts.”

Yudichak noted that Dr. Mark Levine, who worked on the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment report that won the Nobel Prize for Peace, has stated Nacero’s “potential for slowing global warming is vast given the potential for rapid deployment and the large amount of gasoline that will inevitably be used during the next several decades — we can’t afford to miss this opportunity.”

“As a 20-year member of the Environmental and Energy Resources Committees in the House and Senate, I look to the scientists, not to radical activists, to guide me through the complexities of addressing climate change,” Yudichak said. “Nacero is looking to invest $6 billion in our communities, create 4,000 new jobs, and make a substantial contribution to reducing Pennsylvania’s carbon footprint which leads me to fully concur with Dr. Levine — Luzerne County cannot afford to miss this opportunity.”

A Nacero spokesperson said, “The applications for this project have not been submitted. There will be ample opportunity for comment when they are. We look forward to a full and open discussion with all concerned parties at that time.”