On The National Stage

While the Delaware Riverkeeper Network operates on a regional level, our impact can often be felt on a national scale. We partner with many organizations and are leaders in multiple coalitions. Our legal actions have precedent setting, broad implications for the rest of the country. See below for some of the ways the Delaware Riverkeeper Network is making an impact nationally.

Fighting the Expansion of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)

The development of Liquefied Natural Gas facilities and operations within the United States would have a damaging effect on the climate and on frontline communities. In 2019, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network uncovered one such scheme that aimed to extract and liquefy fracked gas from the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and transport it by train through densely populated areas until it reached Gibbstown, NJ where it would then be stored and exported via ships internationally. The scheme involved a Special Permit for this specific project to transport LNG from PA to NJ, which was issued by the Trump Administration in 2019, and in parallel, a General Rule adopted in 2020, that would have allowed LNG to be transported by rail nationwide, an untested proposition that carries a major public safety risks. Through our many advocacy and litigation efforts, including pressure on legislators and state and federal regulators, the Special Permit ultimately was allowed to expire and officially denied without ever being used. The General Rule was suspended and officially vacated by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in January 2025.

Challenging Fossil Fuel Pipelines and Preserving States’ Rights

The Delaware Riverkeeper Network has maintained that states reserve the right to make decisions about projects that impact their water resources, as granted by Section 401 of the Clean Water Act. In instances where federal regulators have already approved a fossil fuel pipeline, as in the case with the Transcontinental Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network filed lawsuits to ensure that Pennsylvania still retains the authority to review state issued permits, and that the people also have the right to challenge those permits through the state’s administrative apparatus. Our legal victories reaffirmed that right, and provides more legal precedence for states everywhere challenging destructive fossil fuel projects.