Dear President Biden and Secretary Granholm:
 
I am writing to request that you please do not approve Venture Global’s application to the Department of Energy (DOE) to export Liquefied “Natural” Gas (LNG) from their proposed CP2 LNG facility in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. CP2 LNG would be the largest volume of LNG ever approved for export. At full volume, the lifecycle emissions of fracking, liquefying, shipping, regasifying, and burning that much gas will add up to 190 million tonnes of CO2e each year –  20 times the annual emissions from burning the oil produced at the Willow drilling project in Alaska and equivalent to the emissions from more than 42 million gas-powered cars or 51 coal-fired power plants.

CP2 LNG’s sister facility, Calcasieu Pass LNG, which will be located next door, was found to have over 2,000 air permit deviations, violating its permit on 286 out of the first 342 days it was in operation. CP2’s pollution, traffic, sprawl, and visual impact would hurt nine communities, including Cameron, Creole, Grand Lake, the Lake Charles suburbs, Vinton, Starks, and Deweyville, Texas, and would destroy more than 1,700 irreplaceable wetlands, marshes, and chenieres along the Louisiana coast. Shrimpers and fishermen have helped lead the opposition to Calcasieu Pass LNG and CP2, citing the threats to their way of life. 

I also encourage the DOE to update how it determines whether new licenses for LNG exports are in the public interest, which, in its current form has led to the approval of LNG facilities to export gas overseas, while communities bear the risks and impacts of extraction, transport, and export facilities, the climate is impacted by the burning of this dirty fracked gas, and Americans and their families are further strained by rising prices of energy and other goods as a result of sending energy overseas for higher prices. In particular, DOE’s current approach to making such determinations does not fully or accurately consider how LNG exports impact the climate, environmental justice, national security, or domestic energy prices. 

U.S. LNG exports have doubled over the past four years, and projects currently under development are set to nearly double exports again. DOE’s case-by-case approach to approvals ignores the aggregate impact that the explosive growth in U.S. LNG exports is having on climate, communities, and our economy. Analysis from the Sierra Club has found that lifecycle emissions of all existing and proposed LNG export terminals would be equivalent to 539 coal plants annually, putting domestic and global climate targets out of reach. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)has also found that LNG exports are the driving force behind forecasted gas production growth. At a time when Americans across the country are experiencing ever-harsher climate impacts, it is imperative that DOE makes decisions about additional LNG infrastructure in a way that fully takes into account the full environmental, economic, and social costs of these projects.
  
Increased LNG exports also have significant ramifications for environmental justice communities and DOE should ensure that its public interest determinations follow the letter and spirit of President Biden’s Executive Order on Revitalizing our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All. LNG exports pollute communities along the whole value chain of LNG production, including those located near fracking wells and pipelines, in the areas where LNG is liquefied and processed for export, and in the communities overseas where it is imported and combusted. By exacerbating climate change, LNG exports also pose a threat to environmental justice at home and abroad, because the impacts of climate change fall most heavily on low-income communities and communities of color.
 
LNG exports drive up household energy burdens across the country, and those effects can trickle down to other essential goods, such as food and fertilizer. The EIA found that “higher LNG exports create a tighter domestic natural gas market … increasing domestic natural gas prices” and this link was on clear display when an explosion at Freeport LNG sent domestic gas prices plummeting and its restart caused them to rise sharply again. Americans rank inflation as the top problem facing the country, and nearly 25% of Americans had to choose between paying for food and medicine or their energy bill at least once in the past year. DOE’s public interest determination for LNG exports should consider the effect that these exports will have on US consumers already suffering from inflation, particularly low-income households, whose energy burden is typically 3x higher] than non-low-income households.

Finally, LNG exports are a serious threat to national security. Non-Free Trade Agreement countries, including the United States’ rivals, are buying up huge amounts of U.S.-produced LNG. A key security strategy of the Chinese government is to purchase energy and commodities to give them influence geopolitically – and that’s exactly what is happening with U.S.-produced LNG exports to China. 

Given the ramifications of the unrestrained LNG export buildout on the economy, national security, the environment, and climate progress, it is critical that the DOE consider the implications of the unrestricted flow of U.S.-produced energy across the globe and enact reasonable limits on LNG exports. 

Once again, I am asking that you deny Venture Global’s application to the Department of Energy to export LNG from their proposed CP2 facility due to the numerous negative impacts it would have on Gulf communities, the economy, national security, and the climate. 

Thank you for your consideration,