Expanding pricey fossil fuel projects puts consumers and the planet last

Let me let you in on a secret the oil and gas industry doesn't want you to know: We have already reached the point where acting boldly to cut fossil fuel pollution is better for your pocketbook too.

Solar and wind are now the cheapest and most resilient forms of power in our country. Moreover, they are getting even cheaper and faster than any other form of energy. A $30,000 all-electric Chevy Bolt costs less than a third as much to power as a comparably priced gas-powered Chevy Equinox. And as someone who replaced his gas-powered Ford with one, I can tell you the maintenance costs are radically less expensive. 

Talking dollars and cents, the benefits of renewables vs. fossil fuels are easy to grasp. On the other hand, whenever one starts to talk about the issue of liquified natural gas exports, most Americans’ eyes glaze over. Politicians whose campaign war chests are filled with dollars from fat cat oil and gas lobbyists count on it.

Meanwhile, our neighbors are dying from respiratory diseases and cardiac arrests caused by fossil fuel pollution. Our neighbors in states like Florida keep having their homeowner policies canceled by insurance companies whose coffers are being ravaged by mega storms prompted by climate change. Energy prices stay way too high. 

One of the growing threats to our physical, environmental and financial health is liquified natural gas exports, known as LNG.

Expanding LNG exports means more endangered water supplies from increased fracking, and a dangerous, resource and pollution-intensive cycle that locks us into a fossil-fueled future. 

Federal energy regulators have long turned a blind eye to the poisoning of local communities and the disastrous climate impacts of gas exports. They parrot the industry’s rhetoric of methane gas “keeping your energy prices low.” But when it comes to gas exports, that weak and debunked fallacy falls flat.

Selling domestic gas on the volatile, global market means its historically stable, low price is a thing of the past. As a result of LNG exports, domestic consumers could face $14.3 billion in higher annual energy costs, according to an analysis from Public Citizen. LNG exports are already directly contributing to punishingly high energy bills and are likely driving up the price of other necessary goods for families, from food to fertilizer.

To make matters worse, there are no restrictions on the destinations where the gas can be shipped. That means American-produced gas is being sold where our rivals, like the Chinese government, can resell the products anywhere in the world. In an unstable world, why would we allow our national resources to be leveraged for our rivals’ geopolitical influence, often at the expense of U.S. interests?

Currently, nine export facilities are operating in the U.S., with a capacity that makes our country the leading exporter of gas in the world. The industry is proposing at least 30 new or expanded facilities, largely on the Gulf Coast. A Sierra Club analysis found that the full proposed LNG buildout could contribute to the climate crisis as much as 681 coal plants or 548 million gasoline-powered cars each year. That’s a step backward almost too large to comprehend.

In front of regulators right now is a test case for just how committed the Biden administration is to protecting the climate, domestic energy consumers and local communities above the fossil fuel industry.

Venture Global, an LNG company, is seeking permits to build CP2, a massive gas liquefaction facility on Louisiana’s Gulf coast that would represent the nation’s largest volume of gas exports ever approved. 

The construction of LNG export facilities like CP2 requires heavy dredging of channels and rivers, devastating wildlife habitat and the spawning grounds for fish and shrimp. LNG tanker traffic impacts larger aquatic species. These projects destroy the very wetlands that protect coastal Louisiana from storm surges fueled by climate change.

Public health is at risk from LNG export terminals spewing harmful pollutants like benzene and nitrogen oxides into the air communities breathe. The company looking to build CP2 doesn’t exactly have an immaculate track record. Venture Global’s existing Calcasieu Pass LNG, to which CP2 would sit adjacent, was found to have over 2,000 air permit deviations and violated its permit on 84 percent of the days it was initially in operation.

Ignore the oil and gas industry’s lies about natural gas. The truth is that it’s a dirty and dangerous energy source. There’s a clear public interest in rejecting further gas export expansion — especially the behemoth CP2 proposal.

The Biden administration can chart a new course. A public interest determination that pauses new gas export approvals will protect the climate, domestic consumers, public health and folks who depend on Gulf Coast land and waterways to make an honest living.

Ben Jealous is the executive director of the Sierra Club and a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania.