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.
Rising sea levels forced him and his tribal nation to move in 2016 from the island where they had settled in the 1830s to escape the Trail of Tears, the forced displacement of Indigenous tribes by the US government. “If anybody’s seen climate change, I’m that guy. I watched that place disappear right before my eyes,” he told media.
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.
President Joe Biden’s administration now faces a huge climate decision: whether to approve Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass 2 (CP2), one of more than 20 proposed LNG export terminals. CP2 can’t export to certain countries unless the Department of Energy rules it is in the public interest. The LNG would mostly be exported to Europe, which is moving away from Russian gas due to the war in Ukraine.
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.
But 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.
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