"LNG Production Comes With A Price, Gulf Coast Communities Warn"

"US takes the global lead on liquid natural gas production and export, as economic promises and environmental worries collide."

"CAMERON PARISH, La.—In southwest Louisiana, amidst natural disasters and industrial expansion, everyone’s lost something — boats, income, family, homes — Leo Dyson admits.

“The house is nothing,” Dyson, a retired commercial fisherman, told Environmental Health News (EHN) of he and his wife’s property lost to Hurricane Rita’s estimated 18-feet of storm surge in 2005. Nearly everyone in Cameron Parish, the town about three hours west of New Orleans where Dyson and his extended family have lived for generations, lost homes in the storm. “It’s your family and the town and your kid’s friends. How do you put a price on that?”

The town’s population dipped from roughly 10,000 to 5,000 in the last two decades. That exodus is exacerbated by not just hurricanes, but expansion of oil and gas refining — most recently, the building of infrastructure for liquified natural gas, or LNG.

LNG is natural gas cooled to liquid for easier storage or transport – it occupies 0.17% natural gas’ volume in its gaseous state. It’s used to generate electricity, or fueling stovetops and home heaters and in industrial processes like manufacturing fertilizer. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in January 2022, LNG has seen a historic rise in global demand. The International Energy Agency, or EIA, estimates global ability to produce and export LNG will expand by 25% between 2022 and 2026, with the U.S. taking the lead."

Xander Peters reports for Environmental Health News January 24, 2024, co-produced by the  Economic Hardship Reporting Project.

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Part 2: "Amid LNG’s Gulf Coast Expansion, Community Hopes To Stand In Its Way" (EHN)