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Environmental concerns grow over impact of liquefied natural gas as U.S. is world’s top supplier
The United States is now the world’s leading exporter of Liquified Natural Gas, or LNG, after the country tripled its output in the past six years, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Environmentalists say this is defeating the Biden administration’s goals of weaning the U.S. off of fossil fuels to avert climate change-driven catastrophes in the future.
LNG is natural gas that is supercooled into a liquid so it can be loaded onto tankers and shipped overseas. Natural gas, while considered cleaner than coal, produces both carbon dioxide and methane emissions which are rapidly warming the planet.
John Allaire’s Louisiana property is just a mile from a liquefied natural gas export terminal called Calcasieu Pass.
Allaire is a former oil industry engineer and is documenting what’s known as “flaring” – when the plant burns off excess gas. He’s not only worried about breathing potentially toxic air but also about America’s natural resources being sent to Europe and Asia.
“It makes no sense,” he said. “It’s all about let’s monetize it, you know make as much money as we can.”
He said he would feel differently if it was staying domestic.
The plant near Allaire is owned by Venture Global. It denied CBS News’ request for an interview, but said in a statement that it has made “dramatic progress in minimizing flaring” and that “the world needs more energy, specifically natural gas.”
It is one of eight operating LNG export terminals in the U.S. Seven more are under construction. U.S. capacity has more than tripled since 2018 and is expected to double again by 2030, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The unprecedented boom worries climate activists who call the new LNG plants “carbon bombs.”
CBS News spoke with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granhom earlier this year after the White House paused approving any new LNG exports. She said the administration is looking at the impacts on the environment, rising domestic prices for natural gas and America’s energy security.
“Are we gonna continue to just authorize and authorize? Or should we take a beat and say ‘What is all of this doing?” Granhom previously said.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill is one of 16 state attorneys generals suing the Biden administration over the pause. She thinks President Biden is trying to appeal to climate voters, saying there is no legal basis for the pause. She added she isn’t worried about the potential climate impacts.
“Because that’s not my job. My job is to hold them accountable under the law,” she said.
Allair is also fighting another LNG plant that would be built right next to his property. He said the companies making billions selling gas overseas should think about more than just money.
“We need to conserve our natural resources for us,” he said.
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An Orange County, California, jury found 26-year-old Sam Woodward guilty of first-degree murder with a hate crime enhancement Wednesday for the 2018 death of Blaze Bernstein, whose body was found days after he went missing, buried in a shallow grave at a Lake Forest park.
The jury reached its verdict after deliberating for just one day.
The judge hushed the courtroom as applause was heard during the reading of the verdict.
The prosecution had argued for Woodward to be found guilty of first-degree murder as a hate crime. Defense attorneys argued that Woodward should be convicted for voluntary manslaughter and acquitted of hate-crime allegations.
Jurors also were asked to consider second-degree murder. Closing arguments in the case had begun Friday, two-and-a-half months after the trial began in Santa Ana.
Following the reading of the guilty verdict, Bernstein’s parents shared their gratitude to the jury, to law enforcement and to the “army of supporters and volunteers” who were with them through the six-and-a-half-year ordeal.
“This was a great relief that justice was served and this despicable human, who murdered our son, will no longer be a threat to the public,” his mother Jeanne Pepper Bernstein said. “We are grateful to the jury for their service and their long days and weeks they spent in that service. Justice has been served.”
Sam Woodward was charged with stabbing Bernstein to death a little over six years ago. The Newport Beach man admitted to stabbing Bernstein, a 19-year-old gay, Jewish man, multiple times in 2018, but pleaded not guilty to murder with an enhancement for a hate crime.
Orange County prosecutor Jennifer Walker maintained to jurors that Woodward stabbed Bernstein, his former high school classmate, because he was gay, and buried his body at Borrego Park in Lake Forest.
“To dig a grave in that terrain, and bury and clean up and murder someone in an hour and half..that is not someone who is just going, ‘Oh..something happened and I need to figure it out.’ That is determined,” Walker said.
Bernstein, who was a college sophomore, was home visiting his family on winter break in January 2018 when he went missing after going with Woodward to a park in Lake Forest, California. Woodward picked Bernstein up from his parents’ home after connecting with him on social media.
Bernstein’s parents found his glasses, wallet and credit cards in his bedroom the next day when he missed a dentist appointment and wasn’t responding to texts or calls, prosecutors wrote in a trial brief.
Days later, Bernstein’s body was found buried at the park in a shallow grave.
The case took years to go to trial after questions were raised about Woodward’s mental state and following defense attorney changes. Woodward was deemed competent to stand trial in late 2022.
Woodward took the stand for several days and confessed to jurors that he stabbed Bernstein multiple times.
DNA evidence linked Woodward to the killing and his cellphone contained troves of anti-gay, antisemitic and hate group materials, authorities said.
“Now with the verdict in hand, we believe justice has been served and that Blaze’s memory will be honored through this outcome,” Pepper Bernstein said.
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