American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2024 - 23

More Research Demonstrates
How American LNG Exports
Are Better For GHG Emissions
Adding to the continued blows battering activists' narrative
that U.S. liquefied natural gas exports hurt the environment, a
new study finds that U.S. LNG exports are environmentally superior
to alternative fuels.
The study, commissioned by Natural Allies for a Clean
Energy Future (NACEF) and the Partnership to Address Global
Emissions (PAGE), concludes that U.S. LNG exports are likely
to have trimmed the world's greenhouse gas emissions compared
with the mix of alternative fuels that would have stood in for
LNG had it not been available in 2022.
Other key findings from the study demonstrate U.S. LNG's
vital role in limiting the world's emissions and transitioning
from coal. According to the study's base case assumptions,
shifting from U.S. LNG to coal increases 2022 GHG emissions
47.7%-85.9%. This conclusion stems from the report's finding
that energy from LNG exports would be replaced by:
· 54% coal;
· 34% fuel oil;
· 16% domestic gas; and
· 8% renewable sources.
In the absence of U.S. LNG, the study finds, that world's
total 2022 GHG emissions would have exceeded that year's
actual volumes by 112 million metric tons.
Former Senator Mary Landrieu, D-La., Co-Chair of the
NACEF Leadership Council, says the study sheds light on
LNG's key contribution. " U.S. LNG will continue to be an important
pathway to drive down global GHG emissions across
the globe, " she relates. " It's my hope that my fellow Democrats
in Washington move beyond bumper sticker slogans and begin
to talk about the realities of how we can responsibly scale up
renewables, drive down emissions quickly, and secure energy
systems at home and abroad with affordable, reliable and lowcarbon
natural gas. "
Similarly, PAGE Executive Director Chris Treanor emphasizes
that the analysis further demonstrates natural gas' key benefits.
" This study underscores the fact that natural gas is a cleaner alternative
to coal and must remain a solution to achieving our
climate and energy security goals, " he describes.
Unfortunately, the Biden administration continues to double
down on its widely criticized LNG export pause. In early
August, the U.S. Department of Justice appealed U.S. Judge
James Cain's decision that halted the U.S. Department of
Energy's pause on issuing new LNG export permits. Cain ruled
in July that the pause was " Completely without reason or logic
and is perhaps the epiphany of ideocracy. "
One clue supporting that conclusion is the extent to which
politics have inspired and motivated the pause. Billionaire donors
and activists including the Rockefellers and Michael Bloomberg
have admitted to pushing the ban, while the lead academic
behind the LNG life cycle assessment research upholding the
ban is known " keep it in the ground " activist Robert Howarth.
In March, Howarth openly admitted that his research on
" The bottom line is that the arrows keep coming
for the Biden administration's politically-driven
and widely panned LNG ban.
"
LNG life cycle emissions was prematurely released with the
goal of getting rid of natural gas entirely.
As described by Bloomberg: " He decided to release his
LNG study before it underwent peer review after a conversation
with environmentalist and journalist Bill McKibben, who wrote
about it in the New Yorker. According to Howarth, McKibben
told him that if he waited to make results from his paper public
until after the peer review process, which could take until
spring or summer, that would mean missing the opportunity to
impact U.S. policy decisions on LNG expected in the first part
of this year. 'I thought, well, okay, he's right,' said Howarth. "
The Independent Petroleum Association of America's Energy
In Depth has highlighted how Howarth quietly updated, then
re-updated, his study, showing large fluctuations and errors in
his work. Adding to this, the Breakthrough Institute released a
recent analysis of Howarth's study demonstrating critical flaws
in its scientific methodology.
A close look at the study reveals it to be " riddled with
errors, " Breakthrough describes, and so the analysis no longer
American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2024

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