The Louisiana Bucket Brigade released the following statement in response to the Louisiana Attorney General, Liz Murrill, suing the Biden Administration over its decision to pause export permits for liquid natural gas export terminals.

The statement should be attributed to Anne Rolfes, Louisiana Bucket Brigade Executive Director:

“With only 76 days in office, the Landry Administration is making clear its vision for Louisian: to turn our beloved home into an industrial wasteland.

The decision to sue the Biden Administration for protecting Louisiana from the gas export industry is in direct conflict with the urgent needs of those of us who live in Louisiana, especially the fishermen of Cameron Parish.

The gas export industry is an existential threat to the survival of small-scale commercial fishermen. Shrimpers lose half a day of work when enormous tankers force them to move off of their fishing grounds and pull up their nets. The industry’s construction on our coast digs up fragile wetlands that we all know are crucial to protecting us from storms and hurricanes. But what is the Landry Administration doing? They are siding with an industry that is bulldozing storm protections, pouring cement on our coast, and killing our state’s seafood industry.

If the governor and attorney general care about Louisianans and our economic future, they should defend our seafood industry and our coast, not gas export companies like Venture Global, which received a $184 million tax break and made $18 billion in its first year and a half of operation.

The right thing to do is to be on the side of Louisiana fishermen and ordinary people. The Landry administration should sue the gas export industry for damage to fisheries and fully compensate the fisherman. Our culture, our coast, and our future depend on it.”

There are currently three operating liquid natural gas export terminals in Cameron and Calcasieu parishes in Louisiana: Sabine Pass, Calcasieu Pass and Cameron LNG. Plaquemines LNG is currently under construction in Plaquemines Parish. There are proposals to build or expand 13 more gas export terminals in Louisiana, and 25 nationwide.

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade has published a series of reports on liquid natural gas export terminals’ repeated and underreported permit violations. In its first year of operation, Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass facility had over 2,000 permit violations and received a compliance order from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.

Local residents are pushing back against these terminals and calling for investments in renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, in an attempt to save their communities from the dangerous gasses these terminals release and the worsening effects of climate change they will cause.

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About Louisiana Bucket Brigade

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade collaborates with communities on the fenceline of polluting industry in Louisiana. We engage in grassroots action to hasten the transition from fossil fuels. Visit labucketbrigade.org for more information.