Travis Dardar, a fisherman and member of the Isle de Jean Charles Tribal Community off the coast of Louisiana, has twice been displaced by fossil fuels.
He resettled in Cameron Parish, a Louisiana coastal community where he could make a living working in one of America’s largest fishing industries, but he was displaced again in August by the construction of Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass 2, a liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal that is being built to ship fossil fuels overseas. He took a buyout in August and moved away from the site and is now commuting two hours to Cameron for oyster season.
He said LNG terminals are threatening his livelihood in the fishing industry.
After a decade-long fracking surge, the United States has become the world’s largest LNG exporter. The Gulf of Mexico sits at the front lines of America’s LNG export boom with massive terminals expanding along the Texas and Louisiana coasts. Called “clean energy” by the fossil fuel industry, LNG is in fact mostly methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will make a decision on CP2 as soon as this month. After FERC’s decision, the Department of Energy will determine whether an export licence for CP2 is in the public interest.
Venture Global did not respond to a request for comment. In the past, the company has argued the project will bring more than 1,000 permanent jobs to Cameron Parish and LNG can replace coal in some countries to bring down emissions.
A new paper by a leading methane scientist found that, when the entire lifecycle of exported LNG is considered, it can be 24 percent worse than the lifecycle of coal.
In November, Dardar travelled to Washington, DC, along with other Louisiana activists to protest CP2 in front of the Department of Energy and Venture Global buildings. He helped deliver a petition to the department with 200,000 signatures against the project.
Louisiana is the largest seafood producer in the lower 48 US states. The industry has retail, import and export sales totalling more than $2bn and employs more than 26,000 people in the state.
The region suffers frequent oil spills, including BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in 2010, which spilled 200 million gallons (760 million litres) of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and took four years to clean up. Most recently in November, 1 million gallons (3.8 million litres) of oil leaked off Louisiana’s coast.
If LNG construction continues, Dardar fears the fishing industry will collapse. “You’re talking about a shrimp-pocalypse,” he said.
The US, the world’s largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases, is on pace to set a record for extraction of fossil fuels. That includes breaking records for gas production. In the process, not only is the US not on track to meet its emissions reduction targets, the emissions from exported LNG are not included in the domestic math and remain uncounted.
Environmental groups, members of Congress, and Louisiana residents are calling on the Biden administration to deny the CP2 permit.
Residents living near the LNG plants are also experiencing health effects alongside climate change.
Roishetta Ozane, founder and director of the Vessel Project of Louisiana and a mother of six children, was one of the activists who delivered the petition to the Department of Energy in Washington. She said the LNG terminals are polluting the air and sea level rises from climate change are submerging wetlands and replacing groundwater with saltwater.
John Allaire, a Cameron resident who worked for decades in the oil and gas industry before he retired, has witnessed significant changes in the area due to the LNG plants. He and his wife often smell fumes from the plant and have seen changes in the environment around them.
On his boat, Dardar said he hopes the Department of Energy rejects the permit for CP2. He emphasized the importance of preserving the Louisiana environment and the unique lifestyle that it supports.