Stop New Methane Gas Exports Now – CP2 and 20 others

CP2 is not a lovable Star Wars robot

Eight years ago in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, the nations of the world set a goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. They agreed that every nation, and especially the wealthiest ones, would contribute to reducing climate damaging emissions.

Since then many people, businesses, climate organizations, and governments around the world have worked to accelerate the transition to renewable energy, reduce the use of fossil fuels, preserve forests, and generally reduce our collective carbon footprint. In the United States we’ve had some modest success. Since 2005 our polluting emissions have fallen 20%. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is accelerating our progress with significant incentives for transitioning to renewable energy. 

Massive U.S. exports of fossil fuels
However, while we’ve been making progress on domestic emissions, something horrible has been happening in the U.S. that is having a huge global impact–worsening the  climate crisis with deadly effects on people all over the world. Since 2015 the U.S. has gone from exporting no oil and virtually no LNG (liquefied “natural” methane gas) to becoming the largest driller and exporter of gas and oil in the world! The increased emissions from the gas and oil we export are so great that they exceed all the reductions we’ve achieved in our domestic greenhouse gas emissions since 2005.

One effect has been to increase the use of methane gas in other parts of the world and slow the global transition to renewable energy. These U.S. exports are also stimulating the building of more methane gas infrastructure in other countries, locking in their use of climate-destroying gas for decades to come.

Largest proposed fossil fuel expansion in the world
What’s even more alarming is that, while we already have 7 giant methane gas (LNG) export terminals, the industry is pushing hard to construct 20 more, mostly along the Gulf coast in Louisiana and Texas. One of these proposed terminals, known as CP2, is awaiting permit approval by the Biden Administration. It would be so big that it would be responsible for twenty times more greenhouse gas emissions annually than the much opposed Willow oil drilling project in Alaska that Biden recently approved. The proposed build out of gas liquefaction export terminals in the Gulf coast is the largest proposed fossil fuel expansion anywhere in the world. According to Oil Change International, the U.S. is on course to be the world’s “Planet Wrecker in Chief.“

This would be an environmental disaster for the folks who live anywhere near the terminal.  At a zoom webinar last month I had an opportunity to meet Travis Darder, a remarkable Indigenous man who makes his living fishing in that area of the Gulf. It was heartbreaking to hear him describe how when the first terminal was built it dramatically reduced fishing catches on his boat and for all the other fishers and shrimpers in the area. He said that now that the gas companies want to build more terminals, it threatens to make fishing in the area extinct. Other local activists from the Louisiana Bucket Brigade explained that the expansion of export terminals in that area will make this beautiful Louisiana coast into a “cancer coast” similar to “Cancer Alley“.

Isn’t methane gas, also euphemistically known as natural gas, better for the environment than other fossil fuels?
No.  It used to be thought that methane gas resulted in fewer harmful emissions than burning coal. It now clear that because gas has 84 times the climate-destroying impact of carbon dioxide, and because it inevitably leaks at the well-head where it is being fracked and from the pipelines and compressor stations that distribute it, and emits greenhouse gases when it is burned, gas distributed by pipeline is just as bad as coal.

Worse yet, a new paper from one of the world’s leading experts on methane gas, has found that when the gas is liquefied and put in tankers and shipped long distances (which is exactly what these terminals in the Gulf are for), the total effect on the climate is at least 24% worse than digging up coal and burning it. Of course, we should really be comparing its effect to the impact of generating the same amount of power via renewable energy. In that comparison methane gas is a loser by a mile. Liquefied methane gas (LNG) is only a winner for the greed-driven gas companies that are willing to destroy the climate of the world to feed their own profits.

Doesn’t Europe need this additional gas?
No. The predicted disaster of Europe freezing after Russia reduced its gas exports, never developed.  The Europeans dramatically increased their rate of installing heat pumps and renewable energy generation, reduced their energy consumption through efficiency measures, and found other sources of gas. Furthermore, these U.S. gas export terminals take 3-5 years to build and wouldn’t be online in time to meet any immediate needs in Europe or elsewhere.

Politically, is there any chance of stopping CP2 and other export terminals from being approved?
Yes. CP2 and other proposed terminals need permits from the Department of Energy In Washington that the Biden Administration could deny without needing any Congressional action or emergency powers. The increase in LNG exports has raised the price of methane (“natural” gas) for consumers in the U.S. Biden could benefit politically from stopping these terminals to avoid further domestic price increases.

After generating an uproar with his approval of the Alaskan Willow drilling project, Biden badly needs a win with younger, more environmentally-conscious voters.  The approval of previous recent LNG terminals was based on government studies produced by the Trump Administration that are flawed, and now completely out-of-date with the latest research. Denying the CP2 permit and permits for other new terminals, or even delaying them until new studies can be done, could be a political winner for him.

The next big fight
After years of on-the-ground and behind-the-scenes organizing, a movement to stop LNG expansion is finally gaining national attention. On November 7th, some U.S. Senators and Congressmen (all friends of Joe Biden) joined Bill McKibben, long-time climate activist, in a press conference calling for Biden to deny any new LNG export terminal permits. McKibben says he’s “never seen a national environmental campaign arise so quickly.”  He’s calling for this to be the “next big fight” on climate in the U.S.–equivalent to the massive campaign that defeated the KXL pipeline.

What can I do to help stop new methane gas exports?

• Spread the word.  Send this post and/or some of the articles linked in it to everyone you know. Even people who aren’t activists are likely to be concerned about the U.S. making the climate crisis worse in such a dramatic way.
• Sign the petition on Action Network telling President Biden and Secretary of Energy Granholm to “Stop CP2 and new Liquefied Natural Gas Exports.” Share the petition on social media and by email with anyone you think might sign it.
• Keep learning about CP2 (Calcasieu Pass – Two) and other proposed LNG terminals and watch for action opportunities.

The climate of the entire world will almost certainly be affected by our winning or losing this fight.

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Photo above: an LNG tanker. Photo by Vytautas Kielaitis via Shutterstock.

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