Press

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 9, 2024

Climate Movement Leaders Call for Sit-In at Department of Energy to Stop New LNG Export Facilities

Hundreds are expected to take part in three days of civil disobedience in Washington, D.C. aimed at convincing the Biden Administration to stop the largest buildout of fossil fuel infrastructure in the United States

Washington, D.C. – Climate movement leaders, environmental justice advocates, and frontline community members released a letter today calling for a three day sit-in at the Department of Energy this February 6-8 to pressure the Biden Administration to pause the approval of any new Liquified Natural Gas export facilities. The letter comes as news breaks that the Biden administration is evaluating the criteria it uses to approve these new projects.

The authors write,

We’re writing to ask you to do something hard but important: come to Washington DC in the middle of this winter, to join a demonstration and, if you can, risk arrest in a large-scale civil disobedience action. We know it’s a lot: we wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t both important, and potentially effective.

What’s at stake is the largest fossil fuel buildout in the world. As is so often the case, local frontline groups on the Gulf Coast have been warning about the massive buildout of liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure for years. They’ve seen the pollution, health impacts, and environmental injustice of these facilities first hand. Now we’re building as broad a coalition as we can.

It’s time to convince the Department of Energy to stop licensing new export terminals for Liquefied Natural Gas.

Signatories on the letter include Gulf Coast residents like Roishetta Ozane, James Hiatt, John Beard, and Travis Dardar, who have been organizing against new export facilities; national environmental leaders like Bill McKibben, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, and Varshini Prakash; youth leaders like Elise Joshi and Alexandria Villaseñor; authors and celebrities like Rebecca Solnit and Jane Fonda; and even former White House officials, like Gus Speth, who served as Chair of the US Council on Environmental Quality during the Carter Administration.

The sit-in is modeled on previous demonstrations, like the iconic sit-ins at the White House against the Keystone XL pipeline, which thrust that fossil fuel fight into the national spotlight. Organizers expect at least 100 people a day to risk arrest by peacefully blocking the entrance to the Department of Energy – a soft launch of the event to the members of Third Act has already generated hundreds of sign-ups.

The organizers of the February sit-in, and the broader movement fighting LNG exports, are specifically calling on the Biden Administration and Department of Energy to, “stop CP2—the next big facility up for approval—and all other facilities by committing to a serious pause to rework the criteria for public interest designation, incorporating the latest science and economics, before any such facility is permitted.”

According to the organizers, their hope is that the Biden Administration will make a decision to pause the permits before February, so that the action won’t be necessary. They write, “We are committed to calm, to dignity, and to giving the Biden administration every possible chance to prove that they are climate leaders on the dirty energy side of the climate crisis as well as the clean.” But if the administration doesn’t act, they’ll be ready.

Over the last two months, stopping LNG export facilities, including the massive CP2 project in Southwest Louisiana, has become a top priority for the environmental justice and climate movement. Videos opposing the projects have generated more than 12.5 million views across social media platforms, driving more than 300,000 signatures on petitions urging DOE to pause approvals. In December, more than 170 scientists wrote a letter urging President Biden to stop what they called the “staggering” buildout of export facilities. The administration’s support for LNG exports has also caused what The Hill called a “revolt” within the Democratic Party, with dozens of members of congress opposing the buildout.

The proposed buildout of more than 20 new LNG export facilities along the Gulf of Mexico represents the largest fossil fuel buildout in the United States and perhaps the world. According to energy analysts, the emissions from the projects could exceed those of over 850 coal fired power plants or the entire continent of Europe. The projects would also harm the local environment, cause severe health impacts for local communities, and drive up costs for American consumers by shipping gas overseas.

Because of their scale and terrible impacts, stopping the facilities represents an opportunity for the Biden Administration to take a major step to addressing fossil fuel production, something his administration has been roundly criticized for failing to take action on. As Bill McKibben, one of the authors of the letter, recently wrote, “If the president does the right thing in the right spirit on LNG exports, he’ll be able to say he’s done more than any president before him not just on clean energy but also on the dirty stuff. He’ll be the leader he promised to be.”

###