By Nick Pope
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.
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. 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.
“You’re going to have every ambassador in Washington from countries that rely on American LNG making the case” for approving the project to the Biden administration, Charif Souki, the founder of Cheniere, a major LNG exporter, told the NYT.
The DOE, the White House and Venture Global LNG did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
Eco Fraudsters.