Germany’s economy minister has urged environmental activists to avoid filing lawsuits against plans for new LNG terminals, warning that their zealousness to save porpoises could inadvertently strengthen the hand of Vladimir Putin.
Germany is racing to build liquefied natural gas terminals to receive gas from farther afield in its bid to quickly turn its back on piped-in Russian energy following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The environmental group DUH filed opposition to the construction of terminals at Wilhelmshaven. The group says the construction will “irreversibly destroy sensitive ecosystems as well as endanger the living space of threatened porpoises”.
“I am the biggest porpoise fan in the government,” said Economy Minister Robert Habeck of the Green party in an interview with RTL broadcaster late Wednesday.
But “your lawsuit would put us in greater dependence” on Russian energy, he warned.
Liquidization makes LNG easier to transport. It can be imported by sea from countries that cannot be connected to pipelines like the United States and Qatar.
Terminals are infrastructure to allow ships to load LNG tanks from the sea. They also contain equipment for re-gasification and storage as well as compression.
Germany has no LNG terminals at the moment, but it had planned to increase its pipeline connections with Russia for more energy.
However, Russia’s aggression in Ukraine has upended those calculations, and Berlin is now expediting the process to build four LNG terminals.
Habeck has been psychologically preparing Germans to face possible disruptions in energy supply, as the EU is currently discussing a Russian oil embargo.
On Wednesday, he warned that there could be petrol “shortages” hitting specific regions, including Berlin where 90 percent of oil consumed stem from a refinery that processes Russian oil.