liquefied natural gas LNG

Climate Movement Monday: good news + quick action

/ Tracy Abell / 7 Comments

Welcome back to Movement Mondays where we focus on climate-related issues. This is going to be very brief as Zippy had a major medical issue over the weekend. He’s home and doing well now (YAY!), but my energy is depleted. However, I really wanted to share some good news on issues discussed here in the past because I want to celebrate the wins when we get them!

Photo by Jill Wellington/ pexels.com

  • Last May I posted about the proposed Uinta Basin Railway which would allow oil trains to travel along 200 miles of the twisty, turny Colorado River.  A stupendously horrible idea! Guess what? The Forest Service withdrew approval for the project! 
  • In November, I posted about 20 proposed Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) terminals along the Gulf Coast and earlier this month wrote about a planned sit-in for February outside the Energy Department in opposition to CP2 and other proposed LNG terminals. Those terminals are another incredibly horrible idea that would effectively cancel out all U.S. carbon and methane progress made since 2005. Well, Biden put a temporary pause on approval of those projects. I didn’t use an exclamation point because climate activists understand that these pauses can be un-paused. The Energy Department is now updating the process to include climate and economic considerations. This is definitely good news that reflects the impact climate activists are making. (Here are responses from some frontline community organizations). But we’re wise to keep a close watch as we remember that Biden’s poll numbers are in the toilet due to his climate record (see Willow) and his facilitation of genocide in Gaza. He could very easily be dangling this “pause” as a way to earn support and then turn around and un-pause the permits. We need a permanent pause on ALL new fossil fuel infrastructure.

Okay, here’s info from Stop the Money Pipeline and the QUICK ACTION:

After the news [Biden’s LNG pause] broke, the stocks of one of the top owners of oil and gas in the region dramatically dropped! It’s a major blow to the oil and gas industry, which will certainly be banging down the White House doors to get the President to reverse his decision.

Right now is a critical time for banks to consider walking away from these fossil fuel projects, too. Send an email to top Wall Street executives: the White House just pressed pause on LNG in the Gulf South, it’s time you did, too.

In October, the climate case for stopping new LNG was strengthened by a new analysis from Cornell that showed that the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions from LNG made it *dirtier* than coal. This new announcement halts nearly 20 LNG terminals representing emissions equivalent to those of 675 coal-fired power plants.

If Wall Street banks were to join the White House and press pause on all financing for toxic projects in the Gulf South, it would be a gamechanger.

Make no mistake, these proposed projects are only possible because of the structural environmental racism baked into the approval of these projects that considers predominantly Black & Latino communities in the Gulf South – as well as Indigenous nations – entirely disposable for corporate profits.

Email the biggest Wall Street banks now to urge them to stop financing LNG!

Me, again. Please remember that it’s fine to send the letter as-is, but it will carry more impact if you take a moment to personalize it.

There is, of course, tremendous satisfaction in such egregious projects losing support, but I’d rather we were celebrating good stuff happening rather than bad stuff not happening.  But, we’ve got to play defense as well as offense. So, HOORAY!!!!!

Take good care of yourselves. Solidarity! ✊🏽

Climate Movement Monday: MLK and mutuality

/ Tracy Abell / 8 Comments

Welcome back to Movement Mondays as we honor the formidable Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a trailblazer in terms of justice and equality, and clearly articulated the threats of racism, capitalism, materialism, and militarism, so it’s sometimes hard to believe he was only 39 years old when murdered. Fortunately, he left us the legacy of his words and actions.

World Telegram & Sun photo by Dick DeMarsico.    November 6, 1964

Today, I want to focus on this passage from MLK’s final Christmas sermon delivered in 1967: “It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. … We aren’t going to have peace on Earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality.”

Those words can be applied to justice and equality, the environment, and the current genocide in Gaza. While it might feel tempting to avert our gaze from the many, many bad things currently being done to people and planet, that’s not a viable path forward because violence against one is violence against all. All life is interrelated.

In that spirit, I’d like to offer some info, starting with a way to help Palestinians communicate (note: yesterday was Day 100 of Israel’s campaign of annihilation). Israel has imposed a blackout on communication and internet access, but eSIMs allow Palestinians to stay connected to friends, family, and the outside world.
The donation process is easy:
1) go to esim.holafly.com
2) select either Israel or Egypt as country (you can buy for 5 days up to 20 days)
3) use promocode HOLACNG for 5% discount
4) Screenshot the QR code (you will receive an email after making purchase)
5) Send that screenshot to gazaesims@gmail.com
6) know that you are helping fellow humans who are enduring terrifying circumstances (here is the full exchange)

And now I’ll share a bit of info about the fight to force the Department of Energy (DOE) to pause the permits for new Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) terminals. In case you need an LNG refresher, I wrote about them in early November 2023. The next facility up for approval is CP2 on the Gulf Coast in Louisiana. Per Bill McKibben, if approved, CP2 “will produce 20 times more emissions than the controversial Willow oil complex over its lifetime. If the industry gets everything they’ve asked for, US LNG exports will produce more greenhouse gas emissions than…Europe. All of it. This is the biggest fossil fuel expansion project currently underway on planet earth.” (Highly recommend reading his entire piece here.)

A huge coalition of environmental and climate justice groups will stage a sit-in outside the DOE building in Washington, D.C., on February 6-8th. 

Go here to sign a petition that tells Biden and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to Stop New LNG exports AND sign-up for the sit-in AND read the full invitation from the coalition. I’m guessing many of us won’t be able to travel to D.C., but we’re still invited to attend virtual trainings on nonviolent protest because it’s good information to have as we face intensified climate collapse.  Go here for info on trainings (January 18; January 25; February 1). NOTE: There are supposedly other actions around the country in support of the big D.C. sit-in and I will share info on those when I find it. 🙂

There are two bits of good news about these LNG terminals.
One, per Healthy Gulf: “The Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (LDNR) has announced that it will not grant a Coastal Use Permit to Venture Global for its CP Express pipeline, associated with the proposed Calcasieu Pass 2 (CP2) methane gas export facility, until the company responds to comments submitted by Healthy Gulf and partners. Read the decision letter from LDNR here.”
Two, per Politico on January 8: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is “reviewing whether it is properly accounting for the climate impacts from a proposed project as well as the national security and the domestic economic consequences.”

And this is precisely why the big February action in D.C. is so important: to keep putting pressure on Biden to live up to his promises to transition off fossil fuels.

If you’ve read this far, thank you for being here! I appreciate your friendship and engagement in these very dark days. I’ll end with one last quote from MLK: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

May we all continue showing up and speaking out. Solidarity! ✊🏽

Climate Movement Mondays: just say NO to more LNG terminals

/ Tracy Abell / 4 Comments

Welcome back to Movement Mondays in which we discuss all things climate, often with a focus on a frontline community enduring the worst effects of the climate crisis. Today’s post focuses on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and a looming decision by the Department of Energy that will most directly affect those living in the Gulf region, but will have ramifications for everyone on the planet.

Environmental justice champion Roishetta Ozane with the Westlake Chemical plant behind her home. They’re already enduring so much and do not want LNG terminals!

This information about the possibility of 20 new LNG terminals in the Gulf comes via Third Act and rather than try to reinvent the wheel, I’m going to copy the full email I received from Third Act founder, Bill McKibben. Spoiler alert: you’ll be asked to handwrite a short letter and I’ve included mine as a sample.

Dear Friends,

As this hottest year in human history winds towards its close, I’m writing to ask for your help with what may be the single biggest climate fight left on planet Earth. And it’s right here at home.

The US is planning to quadruple the export of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from the Gulf of Mexico over the next few years—there are plans for 20 huge export terminals to add to the seven that already exist. If they are built, the emissions associated with them will be as large as all the emissions from every home, factory, and car in the EU. The emissions associated with them will wipe out every bit of progress the U.S. has made on reducing carbon and methane since 2005.

And along the way it will hurt not only the people who have to live and breathe near these monstrosities, but also all American consumers—because exporting gas abroad drives up the price at home.

If you want a short primer, here is something I wrote this week, and another piece I wrote for the New Yorker.

Happily, we have a realistic chance at stopping this. Which is why I hope you’ll break out your stationery box and roll of stamps. The final decision will be made by the Department of Energy, which can grant or deny export licenses to these companies depending on whether they’re in the public interest.

Please please please write a letter this week to:

The Honorable Jennifer Granholm
Secretary of Energy
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave. SW
Washington DC 20585

Here are some key points you can include in your letter:

  1. These plants are carbon and methane bombs. In the hottest year of human history it’s obscene to be putting up more of them.
  2. We’re already the biggest gas exporter on earth, and have more than enough capacity to meet the needs of the Europeans in the wake of the Ukrainian war.
  3. When we export all this gas, we drive up the price for those Americans who still rely on it for cooking and heating. Rejecting this project will fight inflation, which will help get the president re-elected.
  4. It’s an environmental justice travesty—as usual, these projects are set for poor communities of color.
  5. They’re planned for smack in the middle of the worst hurricane belt in the hemisphere.
  6. So rewrite the criteria (they’re currently using a Trump-era formula) for figuring out if such plans are in the national interest.

If you thought you were getting off without one high-tech task, though, you’re wrong. Could you also take a picture of the letter on your smartphone and email it to takingaction@thirdact.org, so we can keep track of what’s happening.

Remember, the penmanship you learned long ago is a secret weapon. Bureaucrats are used to getting email petitions; they’re not used to getting old-school letters. They know it takes effort, and they pay attention.

I think we can win this fight, and if we do it will be the biggest win on the climate front since we sunk the Keystone pipeline. But we can only do it if we act right now.

Thank you,

Bill McKibben
Founder, Third Act

P.S. As I was writing this, the first snow of the season started to fall in Vermont. That’s got to be a good sign!

In case you’re feeling stuck or intimidated about writing a letter, please check out my letter. What matters most is writing from your experience and including your concerns. My letter is probably longer than necessary, so please feel free to only write one short paragraph. As Bill says, just the fact that we’re taking the time to handwrite and mail a letter shows a big commitment that’s much harder to ignore.

Please holler if you have any questions. Also, I’d love to hear the focus of your letter so feel free to share in the comments. As always, thank you for reading this far.

Solidarity! ✊🏽