Eco-activists are preparing to target a major natural gas project in Louisiana after a massive pressure campaign to kill an Alaskan project came up short, according to The New York Times.
The Calcasieu Pass 2 project, known as CP2, would be a major export terminal facility for liquefied natural gas (LNG) located to the south of Lake Charles, Louisiana. Prominent eco-activists and environmental groups, including Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Climate Defiance and numerous others, strongly oppose the project, and are exerting pressure on the Biden administration to kill it by declining to grant the necessary authorizations, according to the NYT.
The $10 billion project would enable the U.S. to export huge quantities of natural gas, especially to European allies that are still attempting to quit Russian gas, according to the NYT. However, a national network of activists and scientists are pressuring the Biden administration and the Energy Department (DOE) to spike the project after mounting a similar— and unsuccessful— campaign against ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project in Alaska. (RELATED: Left-Wing Billionaire’s Nonprofit Is Pushing A TikTok Campaign Against American Energy)
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In addition to other government sign-offs, the DOE will have to determine that the project is in the “public interest” in order to allow it to continue, according to the NYT. Activists anticipate that the DOE’s decision will provide the best opportunity to crush the project, owned by Virginia-based Venture Global LNG.
Activist groups targeted Biden administration officials over the Willow Project, demanding that they unilaterally cancel the development to stick to the administration’s stated commitment to fighting climate change. Prominent eco-activists like Bill McKibben took to the pages of major national newspapers to decry the project, but the administration went ahead and approved the project in March over those objections.
McKibben and numerous groups are at it again with CP2, publishing articles against its construction and ratcheting up protests against DOE officials in order to get what they want.
“Mr. McKibben and his beneficiaries have no credibility and continue to mislead the public by spreading misinformation that defies scientific consensus,” Shaylyn Hynes, a spokeswoman for Venture Global, told the DCNF.
However, the geopolitical importance of the project may ensure that the administration once again sides against the green left, a key constituency for Democrats and President Joe Biden going into the 2024 election cycle.
“The greatest tool the world currently possesses to combat climate change is natural gas, full stop. This has been proven in the United States, where emissions have declined dramatically due to fuel switching from coal to cheaper, lower carbon natural gas,” Mike Sabel, CEO of Venture Global, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “From a geopolitical standpoint, the United States is the top LNG exporter in the world and our allies are counting on us for that supply, especially with the substantial reduction of Russian LNG in the market. Any infringement of US supply in the global market would have the same impact on the global economy as an economic sanction and would cause ripple effects spanning from deindustrialization to food insecurity.”
Additionally, officials from numerous European countries that would benefit from CP2 are likely to lobby the Biden administration to approve the project, Charif Souki, the founder of Cheniere, a major LNG exporter, told the NYT.
The DOE and the White House did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
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