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3 Things Republicans Don’t Want You to Know About LNG

The only winners in expanding dirty LNG terminals are Big Oil and its cronies. But President Biden is standing up to them and for us.

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Friday, April 19, 2024

Composite of Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson in front of an LNG storage tank and a chart showing oil and gas donations to Speaker Johnson.

Would you buy something online without first checking the reviews? Ask your hairdresser to give you bangs before checking in on your emotional state? Marry someone after one halfway decent date at a Chipotle? Probably not—you’d do your due diligence first.

So, why would the government indiscriminately green-light fossil fuel projects without first understanding their potential impacts on people or our climate?

It shouldn’t. That’s the commonsense logic at the core of President Biden’s LNG (liquefied natural gas) pause. During the pause, the Department of Energy (DOE) will reassess how it determines which projects get the go-ahead, taking into account climate and economic impacts on the public. Shockingly, DOE has never denied an LNG terminal application as not in the public interest. Ever. So, this could be a huge turning point.

But right now, while President Biden is standing up to Big Oil, Republicans, like House Speaker Mike Johnson, are trying to pressure President Biden to backtrack on his commonsense LNG pause because they don’t want you to know these three things.

1. Building more LNG terminals will increase your monthly energy bills

Fossil gas prices are volatile and rising—with prices expected to more than double by 2025. More LNG terminals will not improve energy independence, nor are they likely to save households money. Instead, the data shows approving pending LNG export terminals could actually increase how much businesses and homes spend on fossil gas by up to $11-18 billion per year.

According to analysis from Energy Innovation, if President Biden’s pause on LNG export facilities ends and currently proposed LNG terminals are approved, U.S. gas prices could surge between 9 and 14 percent each year over the next few years. Annual heating bills for the average American household using gas would increase by $20 to $40 per year, and in some areas upwards of $7 per month.

Follow the money

Republicans are bought out by the oil and gas industry. Speaker Johnson has taken over $165K in fossil fuel donations in the first quarter of 2024 alone. By trying to end this pause, they are working to increase your power bill so gas companies can make more money selling their product internationally.

2. LNG is really, really bad for our climate

America’s LNG exports have been surging since 2016. The U.S. is already the world’s largest exporter, and even with the pause, the U.S. will still double its exports over the next four years due to the already approved terminals under construction. LNG has been referred to as a “climate bomb.” If every U.S. LNG terminal currently being considered were built, we'd create 704 million tonnes of climate pollution—the equivalent of about 153 million more cars on the road for a year. We can’t continue on this trajectory for the sake of our planet—and we don’t have to because we’re already producing enough LNG to meet global demand.

If every terminal under construction were completed...

...the burning of this exported gas would create 198 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. That’s about as much climate pollution the country of Ethiopia creates in a year.

3. LNG is poisoning communities of color

For decades, Black, Latino, and low-income communities from Texas to Louisiana have lived in the shadows of polluting petrochemical factories so deadly that these areas have been dubbed “Cancer Alley” and “Death Valley.” Following the recent LNG boom, the fossil fuel industry once again targeted Gulf Coast communities with most of its LNG terminal buildout.

These facilities emit dangerous air pollutants like nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter. And as a result, these communities suffer from higher rates of cancer and heart, lung, and skin disease.

Frontline advocacy groups, like the Vessel Project and the Port Arthur Community Action Network (PA-CAN), have long been calling for an end to LNG extraction in their neighborhoods. And this hard-won milestone is thanks to their sustained advocacy.

Hear from PA-CAN's John Beard

Watch this short film (Instagram) about Port Arthur by People vs. Fossil Fuels and Tikkun Olam Films.

Expanding LNG terminals hurts our climate, economy, and the communities forced to live next to them.

President Biden must keep up the fight against fossil fuels because, at the end of the day, we know that the only winners when building more LNG facilities are oil and gas CEOs and their GOP cronies. And it’s our job to hold the president to it—and urge DOE to update the analysis to include the true economic, social, and climate costs of expanding LNG exports.