A small vehicle drives past a liquified natural gas export facility in Hackberry, Louisiana, March 31, 2022. Natural gas is cooled at the facility and turned into liquid and sent on massive ships to many parts of the world. Once it arrives at its destination, the liquified natural gas is re-gasified and piped to homes, factories and other places.
The immediate benefits go beyond creating jobs and expanding the economy. Given how the LNG export market serves U.S. interests by helping American allies keep the lights on while punishing Russia for its aggression, you’d think President Joe Biden would be content to take the win and leave well enough alone. No such luck.
There’s no mystery about any of those questions, however. Living near petroleum facilities does indeed expose people to the risk of pollution. The price of gas has been driven down by the current glut and probably would increase over time if more were shipped abroad. As for methane, it is well known to be a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming and climate change.
In a perfectly green world, there would be no need for fossil fuels of any kind. In real life, it will take decades to make the transition to cleaner energy, and LNG is widely viewed as the best practical bridge to a future less dependent on the dirtiest fuels. More than 80% of the world’s energy today comes from hydrocarbons. While Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act will help to reduce that dependence, its impact will be felt only over a period of years. Meantime, demand for energy keeps increasing, and the preferred forms of “green” power, namely wind and solar, can’t be scaled up fast enough to meet the need.