Natural Gas Industry Threatens Gulf Coast Fishing Communities
By Shannon Kelleher
Louisiana’s growing liquefied natural gas industry is disrupting generations-old fishing communities along the Gulf Coast with tanker traffic, habitat loss from dredging and air pollution from leaks.
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Berwick comes from a long line of crabbers dating back to the 1820s when his ancestors first arrived in the heel of the Louisiana boot — the state’s southwest corner.
“Thirty years from now I want my children to be able to say, ‘this is my home, this is where eight generations of Berwicks have lived,’” he said.
But this simple dream is in danger from a growing threat facing Berwick and others who contribute to — and depend on — the $1.5 billion fishing industry along Louisiana’s Gulf Coast.
The fossil fuel industry has identified the Gulf region as a key site for expanding liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminals.
Eight new terminals are planned for southwest Louisiana alone, with a total of at least 16 new LNG projects anticipated for the Gulf region in the coming years.
The terminals take in gas from transmission pipelines, cool it to a liquid and store it for overseas exports. LNG is considered the cleanest of fossil fuels because it produces less carbon dioxide than coal and oil.
Industry groups, including the Center for LNG, claim the fuel is vital to a clean energy future, with the potential to provide energy security and “lift people out of poverty.”
But environmental groups and concerned residents call the claims “greenwashing,” citing emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane and other air pollutants associated with LNG facilities, leakage, and emissions along its supply chain. They also point to a history of alleged shoddy operating practices that jeopardize public health and safety — all forced on communities with little consent.
And for Louisiana’s Gulf Coast in particular, critics say the rise of the LNG industry is threatening to wipe out a way of life that has endured for generations and exacerbate the suffering of Gulf communities already plagued by climate-driven disasters.
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An LNG export boom
Most existing LNG and planned terminals are situated along the Gulf Coast, perhaps in part due to the region’s oil- and gas-friendly regulatory environment.
The U.S. recently became the world’s largest LNG exporter following an increase in global prices for methane gas after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which led to 45 long-term contracts to export U.S.-produced methane overseas, according to a 2023 report by environmental and consumer advocacy nonprofits.
But while the industry claims U.S. LNG exports will help support national security in Europe, the report finds that more than three-fourths of the LNG stipulated in the new contracts will be shipped to Asia or commodity traders.
The Biden administration has largely supported U.S. LNG exports, which generated $35 billion in revenue through September 2022 — more than four times the revenue generated in the same period in 2021.
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The U.S. currently has five LNG terminals operating on the Gulf Coast, in Louisiana and Texas.
Two of the Louisiana terminals are located adjacent to communities at opposite ends of Calcasieu Lake — Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass, which started sending out export cargoes in 2022, and Sempra Energy’s Cameron LNG, which started full commercial operations in 2020. Another facility, Sabine Pass LNG, sits about an hour to the west on the Louisiana-Texas border.
Environmental groups have been opposing a federal permit for a new $25 billion export facility planned for Calcasieu Parish, Driftwood LNG, arguing that the permit failed to account for the project’s potential to damage wetlands. Earlier this month, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans rejected their challenge.
Flaring and fire hazards
Louisiana’s LNG export terminals have triggered numerous health and safety concerns. The Cameron LNG facility has accidentally released harmful gases 67 times since its export operations began in 2020, according to a 2022 report by the Louisiana Bucket Brigade.
Almost three-quarters of these incidents have resulted from repeated failures by the same piece of equipment, the thermal oxidizers. Whenever they shut off, the plant releases methane, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and cancer-causing benzene into the air.
While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found that Cameron LNG has underreported the emissions from these incidents, the report says that the company has not been penalized.
Furthermore, although the Calcasieu Pass facility has been in operation for less than two years, its tenure has been “rife with flaring and accidents,” according to the Bucket Brigade report.
Flaring, when a terminal releases and burns gases, is considered a mechanism for safety and pollution control. But if the hydrocarbons it releases aren’t completely burned, they can contribute to air pollution and pose a huge safety hazard, said John Allaire, a retired engineer and environmental consultant who lives in Cameron Parish, a little over a mile from the Calcasieu Pass terminal.
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Allaire said he found that the facility flared during 84 of its first 90 days of operation. Venture Global has reported very few of these incidents to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, a Louisiana Bucket Brigade analysis found.
Later this year, Venture Global plans to begin construction on another facility, Calcasieu Pass 2 (CP2), next to the existing Calcasieu Pass terminal (the project has not yet been fully approved by federal regulators). A new facility, Commonwealth LNG, is set to become Allaire’s next-door neighbor.
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The fires have come close to the local LNG terminals, he said, burning right up to the edges of the storm protection barriers that surround them.
He worries that improper operating practices could turn a wildfire near an LNG plant into a bigger emergency. If a piece of flaming ash carried by strong winds was swept into the plant and hit a leak source, it could catch fire, he said.
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Recent fires have come within a mile or so of 10 different sites that either currently have operating LNG terminals or have been proposed or approved for future projects, said Morgan Johnson, a staff attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
In 2018, federal regulators forced the Cheniere Energy LNG facility 25 miles away to temporarily shut down two storage tanks after the discovery of a large crack.
“The tanks were leaking and they kept operating them and lost thousands and thousands of cubic feet of natural gas,” said Allaire. “If there had been a fire then and a flame had actually gotten in there, it would have been a disaster.”
Sometimes, when he’s at home, Allaire hears the sound of equipment alarms going off at Calcasieu Pass.
Last spring, he said he attended a meeting with a high-ranking Venture Global official. Allaire asked if the alarms meant he should shelter in place. The official, who did not respond to a request for comment from The New Lede, told Allaire to call 911 if he thinks he is in danger, he said.
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According to a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission resource for landowners affected by natural gas facilities, compressor stations have gas and fire detection systems and emergency shutdown equipment “designed to ensure that in the event of an accident, the compressor station would be safely shut down with minimal risk to the public.”
Venture Global and Sempra Energy did not respond to The New Lede’s requests for comment about concerns related to their LNG facilities.
A sinking seafood industry
The Louisiana seafood industry accounts for one in every 70 jobs in the state, with shrimp bringing in $1.3 billion and crabs bringing in $293 million.
Companies are often owned by families that have lived in the region for generations, many of which are the Cajun descendants of exiles who fled French colonies in what is now Canada following the French and Indian War, according to Lori Cooke, a program coordinator for the Louisiana Bucket Brigade and a fifth-generation resident.
Just 25 years ago, the fishing industry in southwest Louisiana was thriving and the “biggest seafood provider anywhere in the world,” she said.
But today, the industry is in trouble.
“The LNG plants aren’t the only problem,” said Cooke. Warming waters and seafood imports that drive down prices also threaten the fishermen.
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One local longline fisherman who has been catching red snapper and other species since the 1970s told Cooke there used to be 100 fishermen like him that went out on the water every day, she said. Now, the number has dwindled to 12 or 15. That fisherman, she said, now works construction jobs to supplement his income.
“Nobody celebrates an LNG paradise,” said Cooke, noting that fishing and other traditions are what form southwest Louisiana’s identity. “There is no LNG festival.”
At least four or five days a week, LNG tankers more massive than cruise ships make their way up and down the Calcasieu Ship Channel, said Cooke, which connects Lake Charles to much larger Calcasieu Lake and, ultimately, the Gulf of Mexico.
For crabbers like Berwick, the tanker traffic, which is set to increase as more LNG terminals are built, poses a major disruption. When the ships pass by, they create giant wakes that suck crab traps out into deeper water where they cannot be retrieved. This happens all the time, said Berwick, who recently gave up crabbing in the shipping channel.
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Dredging to widen the shipping channel for the LNG tankers has “pretty much changed the landscape from what it was in its natural form,” added Berwick.
While Cameron LNG says mud from the dredging has been used to create 500 acres of marsh and wetlands, local shrimpers have complained that the activity prevents them from trawling.
LNG projects could destroy 1,848 acres of wetlands, according to an analysis of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission data by the watchdog group Oil and Gas Watch.
LNG tankers could also threaten fishermen’s lives. Pilots who guide the boats through the shipping channel have warned the fishermen to stay at least two miles away from the tankers, said Cooke.
If they can see the LNG ships, they are already too close.
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Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/liquified-natural-gas-gulf-coast-fishing/