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sean casten
Cornell Study Shows LNG Worse for Climate Than Coal
"LNG is not a bridge fuel to clean energy," said one expert. "It's a highway to climate hell."
Oct 03, 2024
On the heels of Hurricane Helene devastating the U.S. Southeast and sparking fresh calls for action on the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency, a long-awaited study revealed Thursday that the planet-heating pollution from liquefied natural gas is worse than that of coal.
"Liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from the United States have risen dramatically since the LNG-export ban was lifted in 2016, and the United States is now the world's largest exporter," wrote Cornell University scientist Robert Howarth, who analyzed the greenhouse gas footprint of LNG produced in and exported from the U.S.
Howarth found that "the greenhouse gas footprint for LNG as a fuel source is 33% greater than that for coal" in terms of its 20-year global warming potential, and "even considered on the time frame of 100 years after emission... which severely understates the climatic damage of methane, the LNG footprint equals or exceeds that of coal."
Advocates of bold climate action welcomed the formal publication of what Third Act founder Bill McKibbencalled a "crucial paper."
"LNG exports present HUGE risks to our planet and climate—and we need to reject any attempts to expand them!"
The study, published online by the journal Energy Science & Engineering, follows U.S. President Joe Biden pausing approvals for all LNG exports to non-fair trade agreement countries and comes a month out from the presidential election, in which Democratic Vice President Kalama Harris is facing Big Oil-backed Republican former President Donald Trump.
"This is a HUGE deal for the Biden administration's ongoing review of LNG exports," said Jamie Henn, executive director of Fossil Free Media and a founder of 350.org, sharing Howarth's findings on social media. Climate campaigners are calling on the Biden-Harris administration to make the January pause permanent.
"This should be the final nail in the coffin for the false narrative that LNG was somehow a climate solution," Henn added in a statement. "This now peer-reviewed paper demonstrates that LNG is worse for the climate than coal, let alone clean energy alternatives. Approving more LNG exports is clearly incompatible with the public interest."
As Henn and others acknowledged, Howarth's research has been targeted by journalists and the fossil fuel industry.
"This paper has been widely discussed, revised, and is now peer-reviewed and published," said Jason Rylander, legal director for the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate Law Institute. "LNG is not a bridge fuel to clean energy. It's a highway to climate hell."
Alex Walker, climate finance program manager at the Canadian group Environmental Defense, also responded to the research by stressing that, contrary to claims by the fossil fuel industry and its political allies, "LNG is not a bridge fuel."
Congressman Sean Casten (D-Ill.) said on social media that "there is no environmental case for increased U.S. LNG exports."
Howarth is on the board of directors of the Food & Water Watch, which similarly pointed to the paper as further proof that "LNG exports present HUGE risks to our planet and climate—and we need to reject any attempts to expand them!"
Cassidy DiPaola, communications director at Fossil Free Media, declared Thursday that "the science is clear."
"There's no place for LNG in a clean energy future," DiPaola said. "It's time to double down on truly clean alternatives like wind, solar, and energy efficiency."
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8 More Democrats in Congress Urge Biden to Step Aside
"It is now time for you to pass the torch to a new generation of Democratic leaders," four congressmen said in a joint statement. "We must defeat Donald Trump to save our democracy."
Jul 19, 2024
Seven Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives and one senator on Friday added their voices to growing calls for President Joe Biden to step aside as the party's candidate to face former Republican President Donald Trump in the November election.
"Our country faces an existential threat this November," Congressman Sean Casten (D-Ill.) wrote in a Chicago Tribune opinion piece. "In the conversations I've had with the folks it is my privilege to represent, there is tremendous fear about this moment. People wonder whether our nation—and indeed, our world—can survive another Trump administration."
"If the upcoming election is a referendum on past performance, future promises, and character, I have every confidence Biden would win," Casten continued. "But politics, like life, isn't fair. And as long as this election is instead litigated over which candidate is more likely to be held accountable for public gaffes and 'senior moments,' I believe that Biden is not only going to lose but is also uniquely incapable of shifting that conversation."
"It is with a heavy heart and much personal reflection that I am therefore calling on Biden to pass the torch to a new generation," he added. "To manage an exit with all the dignity and decency that has guided his half-century of public service. To cement his legacy as the president who saved our democracy in 2020 and handed it off to trusted hands in 2024 who could carry his legacy forward."
Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) on Friday explained his new call for Biden to step aside in a series of posts on X, while Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) released a lengthy statement, which was dated for Thursday.
Four other House Democrats—Reps. Jesús G. "Chuy" García (Ill.), Jared Huffman (Calif.), Mark Pocan (Wis.), and Marc Veasey (Texas)—issued a joint statement urging 81-year-old Biden to withdraw from the presidential contest.
"Mr. President, with great admiration for you personally, sincere respect for your decades of public service and patriotic leadership, and deep appreciation for everything we have accomplished together during your presidency, it is now time for you to pass the torch to a new generation of Democratic leaders," they said. "We must defeat Donald Trump to save our democracy, protect our alliances and the rules-based international order, and continue building on the strong foundation you have established over the past few years."
"We must face the reality that widespread public concerns about your age and fitness are jeopardizing what should be a winning campaign. These perceptions may not be fair, but they have hardened in the aftermath of last month's debate and are now unlikely to change," they warned. "We believe the most responsible and patriotic thing you can do in this moment is to step aside as our nominee while continuing to lead our party from the White House."
Since the debate, Biden has faced public and reported private pressure to "pass the torch" from a growing number of Democratic lawmakers, public figures, and organizers. Many of the members of Congress have been white "moderates," while leading progressives including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) have stuck with the president.
"Democrats have a deep and talented bench of younger leaders, led by Vice President Kamala Harris, who you have lifted up, empowered, and prepared for this moment."
Notably, García, Huffman, and Pocan are members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. García is also part of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus—whose political arm formally endorsed Biden on Friday morning. Veasey is the first member of the Congressional Black Caucus to openly urge the president to step aside.
"Democrats have a deep and talented bench of younger leaders, led by Vice President Kamala Harris, who you have lifted up, empowered, and prepared for this moment," the four congressmen said. Polling released Friday by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 6 in 10 Democrats believe Harris would do a good job as president.
"Passing the torch would fundamentally change the trajectory of the campaign. It would reinvigorate the race and infuse Democrats with enthusiasm and momentum heading into our convention next month," they concluded. "Mr. President, you have always been our country and our values first. We call on you to do it once again, so that we can come together and save the country we love."
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) similarly argued in a Friday statement urging Biden to exit the race that "by passing the torch, he would secure his legacy as one of our nation's greatest leaders and allow us to unite behind a candidate who can best defeat Donald Trump and safeguard the future of our democracy."
After surviving an assassination attempt last weekend, Trump this week announced Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate and formally accepted the GOP nomination in a long, rambly speech at the Republican National Conventional in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The Democratic National Convention is planned for August 19-22 in Chicago, Illinois, but the party is planning a "virtual roll call" among delegates to nominate Biden—who is currently isolating in Delaware due to a Covid-19 infection—before the event. Biden said Friday that he plans to be back on the campaign trail next week.
Heinrich is the third Senate Democrat to push Biden to withdraw, following Sen. John Tester (D-Mont.) on Thursday and Sen. Peter Welch (Vt.) last week. They are joined by over 20 other House members and various other current and former officials.
There is also the newly launched Pass the Torch campaign and fresh calls from the Step Aside Joe campaign sponsored by RootsAction.org, which started urging Biden to not seek reelection long before last month's disastrous debate.
"Twenty months ago, just after the 2022 midterm elections, we launched a campaign for Joe Biden to voluntarily be a one-term president, and the Step Aside Joe campaign has continued to urge that realism prevail over wishful thinking," the initiative said in a statement Friday. "As our country has faced the extremist Republican threat, we have persisted in pointing out that the Democratic Party needs a much stronger standard-bearer than Biden, someone capable of articulating a popular vision that could galvanize a solid electoral majority."
"It's sad, in fact tragic, that the party leadership has waited until just the last few days to publicly acknowledge what has long been apparent: Biden is unable to speak effectively or act decisively to counter the MAGA movement," the campaign added. "It shouldn't have taken a thoroughly disastrous debate performance to set off alarm bells. Long overdue, Biden's withdrawal from the 2024 race can open up vital possibilities that his candidacy has foreclosed."
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