FERC vs the World over LNG

Not too late and none too early to stop CP2 and LNG too

by Drewin Action, allies, Homeon Posted on

December 19 update for FERC meeting – Good morning activists! Today is the day of FERC’s last Commissioners’ meeting of 2023 and we’ve got some extra actions you can take to help us deliver the message to stop CP2 and LNG too!

First of all, just because FERC isn’t voting on the CP2 export terminal this month, doesn’t mean they aren’t up to bad things! In particular they’re considering several permits and rate increases (more money for gas) requested by the builders of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. More on that from our friends at POWHR here.

Our friends at Beyond Extreme Energy are outside the FERC offices in Washington D.C. with a decorated pipeline, some “presents” for the commissioners, and are passing out cookies informing FERC staff and officials they are still on the naughty list. Join us 7AM-10AM at 888 First St NE, Washington, DC. You can back them up by making a call into FERC and demand that they reject the MVP, CP2, all new LNG terminals, and all fossil fuel infrastructure expansion. Click here for a script and the phone numbers to FERC’s commissioners.

And finally, it’s not too late and none too early to tell everyone you know to send a comment to both FERC and DOE asking them to block CP2 and all new LNG. Click here to get started, or if you’ve already sent your comments in share this post with friends online and encourage them to take action too!

Share on Facebook
Share on Instagram
Share on Twitter
Share this link

Dec 14 message: All last month, we asked you to sign petitions, send comments, and take action aimed at getting the Biden Administration to stop the fossil fuel exports, especially LNG, that are wrecking our climate progress. On November 30, we delivered more than 200,000 comments to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the US Department of Energy (DOE) – and now we’ve gotten a sign that the pressure is working.

FERC released the agenda for their final Commissioner’s meeting of the year this week, and the massive LNG export terminal Calcasieu Pass 2 (CP2) isn’t on it. This is a delay, not a decision. But it is a good sign, as I’ll explain a bit more below. But for right now there are two immediate ways you can help us make use of the extra time to stop CP2 and LNG too:

  1. Click here to send a comment to both FERC and DOE asking them to block CP2 and all new LNG.
  2. We’re planning 1 additional delivery event targeting FERC this year with our friends at Beyond Extreme Energy, and in early 2024 we need to go bigger – with a series of non violent direct actions targeting the LNG industry, and the Biden Administration. Plans are already coming together for actions in January and February – but we need resources to support. Chip in here to fund these plans and make sure Biden actually does the right thing and says no to this massive LNG export facility, and begins to phase out US fossil fuel exports.

What you missed if you missed November

All during November, we were petitioning DOE, FERC and President Biden to stop CP2 and exports of fossil fuels. That’s because, heading into the COP28 talks in Dubai, a ton of new research was released that showed:

  1. The US and the world aren’t on track to hit the goals and promises they’ve made under the Paris Climate Agreement and previous COP meetings.
  2. In the US, emissions are declining, a little, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act and new investments in electric cars, renewable energy, and the like. But the Biden administration is canceling out its own climate progress by approving dozens of new oil and gas projects – especially fossil fuel exports. And
  3. The leading fossil fuel export that’s wrecking our climate progress, and global hopes to keep warming under 1.5c, is “Liquefied Natural Gas” (LNG).

So, we gathered hundreds of thousands of comments and petition signatures, and delivered them as US negotiators were leaving for the international climate talks in Dubai. The hope was that — combined with massive anti fossil fuel protests we were a part of in New York last September, and the massive anti-fossil fuel protests at the APEC summit a few week earlier — we’d convince President Biden and US negotiators to stop leading the world in the wrong direction and actually end the era of fossil fuels here in the US, and around the world.

What you missed at the COP28 talks (not much)

We didn’t hold out a lot of hope or faith in the climate talks this year – lead by an oil CEO and riddled with scandal, greenwashing, and climate denial, the deck was really stacked against those of us calling for strong action on fossil fuels. But, as others have noted, the international talks and UN process are almost the only chance many frontline leaders, especially those from the global south, get to directly address senior world leaders and make the case for climate action.

And those activists brought fire to this years COP28 talks in Dubai. The key demand, as at all our actions in New York, San Francisco, and around the world all year long was to phase out fossil fuels fast, fair, and forever.

And the result is an historic, albeit semantic, victory: For the first time in almost 30 years, the entire world agreed that to stop climate chaos they have to “transition away from fossil fuels.”

Everybody agrees that this is only a partial victory. The fact that this is the first time in 28 years of COP meetings that the final agreement has even said the words “fossil fuels,” is emblematic of the problem -given that fossil fuels are, y’know, the cause of climate change. And not to put too fine a point on it, but all the research in the literal world (see above) ha already shown that countries – and especially the US – are not coming close to living up to the promises they made at previous COP meetings.

But, optimists take note: The US and Climate Envoy John Kerry were among the leaders advocating for more and stronger fossil fuel language in the final hours of the COP28 meeting. That’s more than a little hypocritical, given that the US is the world’s largest fossil fuel exporter (again, with LNG the biggest, and fastest growing, export).

But it does give us hope that the Biden Administration at least understands the math: in order to stop climate change, we have to end the era of fossil fuels. Reasonable debates can be had about how to make the transition fast, fair, and funded. But as UN president António Guterres said, “Fossil fuel phase out is inevitable.”

So far, the US and the world haven’t shown and signs that they’re getting to work on an immediate phase out. In fact, in the hours since the COP28 talks concluded, there have been a flurry of new deals announced to drill, frack, refine and export more fossil fuels – some of the deals were actually negotiated at the COP talks in Dubai 🤦 .

Back to FERC and LNG in the end

But that’s why FERC delaying the CP2 decision is a good sign. And why we need to escalate in 2024. Comments and signatures got us a delay in the last few weeks. But the big change in policy to phase out fossil fuels, that was the result of many weeks of “street heat” organizing in the US and around the world.

Kerry and other US negotiators started the year praising Sultan Al Jaber as the choice to lead the climate talks and talking about LNG and other “low carbon” fuels. They ended the year decrying fossil fuel lobbyists’ control of the climate talks, and pushing (albeit hypocritically) for stronger fossil fuel phase out language than we got, and admitting that the science is clear that you can’t stop climate change without the end of fossil fuels, finally.

So, get on board – send your comments to FERC and DOE (or send them again) and chip in what you can to charge up our fight before the end of the year. We need to launch 2024 with a wave of actions that slams the Overton window wide open and convinces Biden to finally end the era of fossil fuels fast, fair, and forever.