Today, Evergreen Action released a new report laying out the unmissable opportunity for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to correct the agency’s track record of recklessly rubber-stamping new, harmful liquified “natural” gas (LNG) export mega-projects. With the Biden-Harris administration’s historic pause on reviewing LNG export applications to non-Free Trade Agreement (FTA) countries—a pause hard-fought-and-won by Gulf Coast leaders and activists—DOE announced it would review the environmental and economic analysis that informs the agency’s decision-making process, specifically whether LNG export terminals are in the “public interest.” That means DOE has the opportunity to update its public determination analysis and ensure these dangerous mega-projects aren’t approved.

The report spotlights the climate harms associated with LNG exports, showing that new authorizations are plainly not in the public interest. It also details how Big Polluters and Republicans are attempting to to undersell the grave environmental, economic, and community costs of LNG in service of maintaining the approvals of these dirty and lucrative mega-projects. 

Read the full report here.

“For too long, fossil fuel corporations have lined their pockets at the expense of our climate and frontline communities in the Gulf while at the same time greenwashing the harms of LNG exports,” said Evergreen Senior Policy Lead for Energy Transition Mattea Mrkusic. “No sound analysis accounting for the full climate and environmental justice harms inflicted by LNG exports could possibly determine these mega projects are in the public interest, which is why DOE must seize the clear statutory authority it holds to robustly update the studies underpinning its LNG public interest determination.”

The Biden-Harris administration has delivered a massive step forward with its LNG pause and public interest determination update. Now, DOE must secure this as a permanent victory for the people and the planet. Evergreen’s report offers three big takeaways:

1. LNG is a climate disaster, and it disproportionately harms frontline communities in the Gulf – Climate pollution occurs at every step along the LNG supply chain, harming our planet and poisoning communities in southwest Louisiana and Texas, who bear the brunt of fossil fuel racism. Members of the communities who would have proposed export facilities in their backyards have been organizing to stop the buildout for years, and their health and safety must be prioritized in the public interest determination. And, LNG expansion is wildly out of step with national and international climate goals, which DOE must take into account in updating its public interest determination.

2. A second Trump administration would spell an LNG disaster for our climate, as well as communities living near export terminals – Public statements by former President Trump and the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 presidential agenda reveal their LNG policies would further unleash climate chaos.

3. A future Harris administration's DOE has the historic opportunity to get the public interest determination process right – DOE has the clear legal authority under the Natural Gas Act to update its analysis and fully account for the tremendous cost of LNG exports to climate, frontline communities, public health, and our economy. Fully accounting for these costs would clearly show that new LNG export authorizations are not in the public interest.

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