Flareup

Much of our energy comes from fossil gas (aka “natural gas” or “LNG”). It’s a fossil fuel, like coal or oil, powering stoves, boilers, water heating. It also provides electricity—30% and 50% in Berlin and NYC, respectively.

Most fossil gas is extracted through fracking: a relatively new, highly toxic process that became widespread in the U.S. in the 2000s. Pennsylvania State University, located in State College, is deeply linked to, and surrounded by, the fracking boom.

State College remains insulated from the pollution that poorer, more rural areas surrounding us live with. My town made hundreds of millions from the profits of fracking other people’s land.

This is the story of how that very gas is now powering our lives here in Europe.

extraction

Photographs by Steven Rubin in Pennsylvania

Fracking is the process of drilling into the ground; pumping pressurized toxic chemicals down to explode rock formations underground; releasing fossil gas; and bringing it back to the surface.

It requires an enormous amount of water; produces noise, air, light, and water pollution; and causes earthquakes. Rural landowners are paid a small fraction of the royalties.

Pennsylvania saw a massive boom of fracking starting in the late 2000s, kicked off after a Penn State scientist estimated how much gas could profitably be unearthed.

The state now has over 200,000 oil & gas wells, making it the second largest gas producer in the country. The nearest active fracking to my house is 15 miles / 25 km away. No one told me about that.

North and South, states took different paths.
New York and Maryland both banned fracking.

Map of wells — Every dot is an oil or gas well.MAP BY FRACTRACKER

exporting

Fossil gas was promoted to America under two premises: it’s cleaner than coal, and it would free America from dependence on foreign oil. Both were red herrings.

In 2015, days after the Paris agreement to limit emissions, Congressional Democrats lifted a forty-year-long ban on exporting oil & gas. The next year, the first terminal began exporting fossil gas from the U.S. Seven terminals now operate, with dozens more planned. The U.S. has surpassed Russia and Qatar to become the largest exporter of gas in the world.

What’s the process of exporting gas? After the gas is fracked, it enters pipelines crisscrossing the country; some leaks out during that process. It’s then loaded onto huge tanker ships at export terminals, which burn yet more fossil fuels to transport the fuel.

40%of global shipping is shipping fossil fuels

These terminals are huge (1,000 acres / 4 sq km), loud, bright, dangerous, and emit toxic pollution nonstop. Rates of cancer nearby skyrocket after terminals open. One in Texas last year exploded into a 450 ft / 130 m fireball.

When building new terminals, fuel companies target poor, majority-Black communities. They assume these commmunities lack the political power to fight back, no matter how harmful they will be to the health and safety of residents who both live near and work in them.

Photographs by Jon Shapley / Houston Chronicle in Cameron, LA

importing

Where is all this exported gas going? Two-thirds goes to Europe, and most of the rest to Asia. Five countries—the Netherlands, the U.K., France, Spain, and Germany—imported over half of American gas exports this year.

Cut off from cheap Russian gas during the Ukraine war and lacking its own reserves, the E.U. is busy building new import terminals to receive American gas. This is despite the fact the E.U. is trying to reduce its emissions, and has reduced gas usage by 18% in the last year.

U.S. gas companies are hoping to keep fracking for export long after the U.S. and E.U. have phased out fossil fuels. Right now, the Ukraine conflict offers a marketable political case that these new terminals are necessary, though they won’t open for years. New customers can, they hope, be found elsewhere, especially in Asia.

Or, we could stop. This entire industry of exporting America’s gas is brand new, rapidly expanding, super polluting, and wildly stupid.

As the U.S. reduces domestic emissions, exporting gas is how American petrocorporations can continue to profit. While they ship our fuels elsewhere, the resulting emissions raise temperatures everywhere. In the meantime, they raise fuel and food prices for Americans, and the profits go to a few gas billionaires, while concentrating the wreckage in the poorest communities.

Exporting gas is a choice for America, one that is recent and reversible. Every new terminal needs an export license, and Biden’s administration can stop anytime. Congress can reinstitute the ban, and it should.

Artwork by Christopher Campbell