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A Very Welcome LNG Pause and the Battle to Come
The climate and global equity impacts of the mass expansion of U.S. LNG exports cannot be understated.
Feb 04, 2024
In a welcome move, the Biden Administration’s Department of Energy (DOE) has opted to pause the approval of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exports to non-Free Trade Agreement (nFTA) countries while the agency works to develop new criteria for determining whether to approve gas exports. This decision bears significant implications for communities directly impacted by gas export infrastructure, communities disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change, and energy consumers—particularly those with high energy burdens. The Administration’s announcement is worth celebrating, but the impact of these reforms will depend on the breadth and depth of DOE’s analysis, as well as the agency’s willingness to create meaningful opportunities for public participation.
LNG production and export facilities are regularly proposed and sited in low-income communities, communities of color, and Indigenous and tribal lands. Communities most impacted by the production of exported gas often face disproportionate cumulative impacts of pollution and associated health burdens including asthma, lung and cardiovascular disease, cancer, preterm births, and premature deaths. Other impacts related to the exports of fossil gas include visual and pervasive light impacts from facilities, sound impacts, and (particularly in the Gulf where projects are often sited) disruption of heritage industries such as commercial fishing and shrimping. Moreover, many of these communities face the first and worst impacts of climate change-attributable extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and floods that threaten community safety and resilience.
From climate justice to community health, cost impacts, and public participation, the benefits of this decision reverberate across communities who are all too accustomed to being sidelined and overlooked.
The announced temporary halt on new nFTA export authorizations may provide some much-needed reprieve for impacted communities who currently expend outsized time and resources advocating for their health, safety, resilience, culture, and self-determination. Communities along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coasts are already disproportionately burdened by the existing LNG export infrastructure and the under-construction projects not impacted by DOE’s pause (not to mention the dozens of refineries and petrochemical facilities.) These harms cannot be ignored and will still need to be addressed. But a promise to actually consider these disproportionate impacts before permitting new facilities in these same communities is a big step in the right direction. As DOE reviews its public interest guidelines, it must do so in a manner that requires the agency to take a hard look at the impacts of projects on impacted communities, particularly through the lenses of health, quality of life, and economic impacts.
The climate and global equity impacts of the mass expansion of U.S. LNG exports cannot be understated. The U.S. is forecast to have the largest increase of annual oil and gas production of any country in the world between now and 2030, and US LNG exports are the driving force behind US gas production growth. Meanwhile, multiple studies have shown that LNG is more GHG-intensive than initially estimated, due to methane leaks and other emissions along the supply chain: production, transport, liquefaction, shipping, and combustion. LNG facilities are built to last 20-40 years, locking in planet-warming emissions for decades. From hurricanes in Louisiana to wildfires in California, from flooding in Bangladesh to drought in Brazil, the impacts of climate change disproportionately affect underprivileged communities least able to deal with those impacts. In pausing new export approvals, the Biden Administration is signaling a willingness to seriously consider the global, unequal impact of U.S.-caused climate pollution.
The pause on new LNG export permits also gives DOE the opportunity to consider equity concerns related to energy burden and consumer costs. By reevaluating the impacts of such exports, DOE’s pause on exports is likely to have a direct, positive impact on energy consumers both domestically and abroad. A boom in LNG exports has strapped domestic consumers with rising costs, causing disproportionate harm to households that spend a large percentage of their income on energy (i.e. that have a “high energy burden”). DOE’s export pause stands to advance economic justice, but must be met with genuine studies on the economic impacts of gas exports. These analyses must replace illogical Trump-era studies concluding that all consumers stand to benefit from increased returns for LNG export stockholders, and they should evaluate the actual implications for public interest analyses when a proposed export would raise consumer costs.
DOE's decision also marks a positive step towards meaningful public participation in the context of LNG exports. Frontline communities and other stakeholders have championed the longstanding request to the DOE for updated fossil gas export guidelines; beginning with a public comment period that allows for community voices to weigh in on what reformed guidelines might look like. This aspect of DOE reform efforts is central to ensuring procedural justice, and the meaningful opportunity for the public to voice their concerns and share insights. DOE is positioned to create a new model for reimagining outdated and exclusive determinations and thresholds, one that pauses, addresses inequities and disparities, and invites diverse stakeholders to meaningfully participate in that reimagining process. Not only is this the right approach—it is the smart one—ensuring that the decision-making process is transparent, inclusive, and considers the diverse perspectives of those directly affected by energy policies.
The DOE's pause on LNG exports to Non-FTA countries signifies a crucial step towards embedding environmental justice at the core of energy policy decisions. From climate justice to community health, cost impacts, and public participation, the benefits of this decision reverberate across communities who are all too accustomed to being sidelined and overlooked. It is an encouraging sign that the Biden administration and DOE recognize the imperative to center the well-being of communities and the planet in their decision-making processes. Transitioning to a clean, renewable, future is a shared responsibility and today, the Biden administration, DOE, front and fenceline groups, and the environmental advocacy community partnered to meet the moment and spark change. Roishetta Ozane, Founder, Director, and CEO of The Vessel Project of Louisiana captured this sentiment in her reflections on the news stating “We will win. And the way we are going to win is together.”
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The 5th National Climate Assessment Is a Call to Urgent Action
The congressionally mandated assessment finds that the climate crisis is already increasing the number of deaths, injuries, and illnesses in every region of the United States.
Nov 15, 2023
I’ve read dozens of harrowing stories about extreme heat this year, but there’s one I just can’t shake. Ramona and Monway Ison, who were in their 70s, died along with their dog Belle from heat-related causes the very night they were approved for a loan to fix their broken air conditioner. The A/C in their mobile home had been out for days during a brutal heatwave. But due to limited income, mobility issues, and a belief that they were used to the Texas heat, the couple stayed put—and perished as a result.
Heatwaves and other climate-fueled extremes are coming for us all, but they’re coming faster and harder for people with intersecting vulnerabilities like the Isons. That’s one of the main messages from the Fifth National Climate Assessment, released Tuesday by the Biden-Harris administration. The congressionally mandated assessment of the current and future risks of climate change finds that the climate crisis is already increasing the number of deaths, injuries, and illnesses in every region of the United States. Systematic racism, discrimination, and disinvestment are exacerbating these harms, particularly in low-income households, communities of color, and Indigenous communities.
For example, the report repeatedly invokes the threat of heat to workers—particularly farmworkers, who toil for long hours outdoors for little pay. Anyone who’s spent hours doing yard work or outdoor exercise has an inkling of how rough the heat can be. But regular exposure to high temperatures combined with insufficient access to food, drinking water, indoor cooling, and healthcare is a recipe for tragedy. Even workers who don’t die from heat face lost work hours and high healthcare costs.
Cutting emissions will help households like the Isons survive the summers of the future, but adaptation is needed to protect people now.
Lest you think farmworkers dying in the heat is a sad problem, but not your problem, think again. As the assessment states, “These effects on farmworker safety and productivity influence the broader economy through reduced agricultural output and higher food prices.”
So, what’s to be done?
One: We need to drastically reduce the pollution from fossil fuels that’s heating our climate up to dangerous levels. Although the United States still has a lot of work to do to meet its national commitments, historic investments through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 will help move us in the right direction.
Policies that cut climate-changing pollution—known as mitigation—also protect our health by cleaning up the air. In fact, the assessment finds that “The economic value of avoided hospitalizations and premature deaths from mitigation activities is larger than the cost of implementation.”
Two, and just as importantly: We need to reduce the risks of climate impacts that we’re already experiencing today and prepare for additional impacts in the future. This set of actions, known as climate adaptation, is admittedly complex and getting harder the warmer the world gets. Policymakers, funders, and the private sector have also moved far more slowly on adaptation than on mitigation.
But relying solely on mitigation is not an option. Per the assessment, “Even if greenhouse gas emissions fall substantially, the impacts of climate change will continue to intensify over the next decade.” Cutting emissions will help households like the Isons survive the summers of the future, but adaptation is needed to protect people now.
The National Climate Assessment offers multiple adaptation options to protect health, including:
- Making healthcare systems more resilient to climate shocks, such as hurricanes, mass casualty heatwaves, or wildfires.
- Enhancing surveillance of climate-related health harms, including infectious diseases and heat-related illnesses. As the old saying goes, you can’t manage what you can’t measure.
- Early warning systems to help people better understand smoke exposure. A warning system would have been particularly useful this summer, when Canadian wildfires created historically smoky conditions in cities like New York and Washington, D.C.
- Heat-related adaptation, including increased access to affordable, energy-efficient cooling and workplace heat protections.
However, none of these options are sufficient on their own. For example, the Isons would probably still be alive today if their A/C was repaired more quickly or if they had spent a few days with a neighbor. But we can’t air condition our way out of the growing threat of extreme heat, and instead need to rethink how entire neighborhoods and cities are laid out. Similarly, occupational heat standards are essential to protect the workers repairing our roads, delivering our packages, and growing our food. But heat standards will only get us so far without tackling the exploitative labor practices that force heat-vulnerable workers to choose their job over their lives.
In other words, adaptation will have to be nothing less than transformational. That will require upending the historic laws, policies, and practices that are putting Americans in harms’ way and keeping them from living their full, productive, joyful potential. And it requires getting started now.
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We Can Build EV Batteries Better to Meet the Clean Energy Transition’s Needs
We have the opportunity to make this transition as sustainable as possible through innovation, mining reform, and battery recycling to create a fully circular economy.
Aug 25, 2023
This summer, we’ve seen flooding in the Northeast, historic heatwaves in the Southeast, record ocean temperature in Florida, and wildfire smoke from fires raging in Canada. It’s clear, now more than ever, that we need a swift transition away from the fossil fuel industry that has been fueling the climate crisis for decades. A key piece of this transition will be the switch to electric vehicles, or EVs, and demand for them is already rising.
Just last year, 10 million EVs were sold, and it’s expected that sales will jump 35% this year. With EVs ramping up in production and sales, it’s critical that this transition is done sustainably, and that starts with how the minerals needed for EV batteries are mined.
The Natural Resource Defense Council’s recently released report, Building Batteries Better: Doing the Best With Less, lays out the necessary policies to reduce the type and amount of minerals needed—lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and graphite—as well as limit the harms from battery supply chains on communities, Tribes, wildlife, and the environment. We have the minerals needed to meet the current demand. And as demand grows even further, we have the opportunity to make this transition as sustainable as possible through innovation, mining reform, and battery recycling to create a fully circular economy.
Continued research and innovation will get us to a point where EV batteries are used over and over again, reducing our reliance on mining and making gasoline-powered vehicles obsolete.
The Biden administration has already started making strides to improve the efficiency of EV batteries by investing $192 million in Department of Energy (DOE) recycling research and technology development. This investment builds on $3 billion in funding awarded to batteries last year through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The Inflation Reduction Act passed last August is also a step toward creating more battery manufacturing and incentivizing domestic recycling.
Continued research and innovation will get us to a point where EV batteries are used over and over again, reducing our reliance on mining and making gasoline-powered vehicles obsolete. The fossil fuel industry is fighting tooth and nail to keep the status quo, but relying on the continued extraction and burning of fossil fuels in our changing climate just doesn’t make sense. The future of transportation lies in cleaner solutions that put communities first.
Community engagement must be part of the process from the beginning to ensure their health and safety. Right now, we are using the sorely outdated Mining Law of 1872 as our standard. It’s time to bring this law into the 21st century and take cues from communities and Tribes on the ground when deciding on new mining practices and projects.
The Interagency Working Group on Mining Reform—a group of federal agencies and experts in mine permitting and environmental law—was due in July to release recommendations to update the existing Mining Law and regulations. This group must issue their recommendations as swiftly as possible because they will represent a guidepost for not only future legislation but also what agencies like the Department of Interior can do today to improve mining and permitting including more thorough community engagement and waste management.
The Biden administration must urge Congress to take action on mining reform and continue to fund DOE’s essential research to make this transition as clean and safe for communities across the country. We have the tools necessary to break away from fossil fuels, fight the climate crisis, and enter a more sustainable transportation system with efficient EV batteries. It’s time to put them into action.
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