Fracking next to a kindergarten, stench and unclear health risks: Liquefied natural gas, LNG for short, is being promoted in the small Texas town of Arlington. Local people are suffering and angry. The resentment is also directed against Germany, where the first investor for LNG tankers has now been opened.
German independence from Russian gas supplies begins behind Wanda Vincent’s garden fence. Her house is in Arlington, a small town in Texas. She runs the “Mother’s Heart” kindergarten on the ground floor, and some of the boys and girls romp around on a small playground. Natural gas is being pumped out of the ground just a few meters from the climbing frame and the red slide. “Hydraulic fracking” is the name of the method with which natural gas is extracted from deep-lying rock under high pressure and with a lot of water and chemicals. The gas is later cooled to minus 162 degrees in a refinery and transported as liquefied natural gas (LNG) on ships around the world.