Gulf Coast leaders scored a victory when the White House directed a temporary halt on permitting methane, known as liquefied natural gas (LNG), export facilities. A possible milestone in the end of the fossil fuel expansion era, the pause is in response to local residents' and leaders' petition to cease the biggest oil and gas buildout of our generation. This call didn't stop at the White House—as fisherfolk, public health professionals, scientists, Indigenous Nations, and everyday people are pressuring banks and insurers to dump these projects.
Often, the opposition to environmental action pits a profit motive, seen as inherently good for the economy and thus, humanity; against a conservation motive, interpreted as protecting the air, land, plants, water, and wildlife but not humanity. That couldn't be further from the truth on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Here, some Indigenous Nations' culture is based on an inseparable view that the health of the land is the health of the people.
This fact is so indisputable that the death of people in this region due to the toxicity of the land and air spurs infamous nicknames like Cancer Alley. In light of the health impacts for local people near methane gas export facilities and the climate disasters due to fossil fuels for everyone around the world, the moral case against these projects is irrefutable. If those making decisions about lives here have any conscience, they'll stop perpetuating this divide between profit, people, and the environment. That goes for banks and insurers who share in the profit for a few at the expense of the many.
The economic case against methane gas is mounting: exporting it raises energy prices for families in the United States and devastates the Indigenous, Black, and brown communities where methane facilities are built. New research underscores the fact that methane gas exports are worse for the climate than coal. The projected glut destroys the value of this fossil fuel. The negative trends of methane expansion projects plague all fossil fuel expansion projects.
The Biden administration freeze on methane gas export is expected to halt 12 projects in the proposal phase. According to the Sierra Club, this would be the equivalent of 223 coal plants. The U.S. already has eight existing methane export terminals and another seven projects under construction that includes completely new terminals in undeveloped coastline in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, and expansions of current projects in Louisiana and Texas. For paused projects, investors cannot deny the huge increase in risk. All methane export expansion projects face the risk from community pressure to cease—especially projects that perpetuate gross human rights violations that are happening now, such as tribal erasure.
Financiers and investors must quit gambling with a sector that recklessly ignores the urging from industry analysts and community leaders to stop all fossil fuel expansion, while risking stranded assets, market volatility destroying investments, and increasing legal risk in their complicity.
Banks and insurance companies have ignored the climate and community impacts of funding such projects for decades. Gulf Coast leaders demand just as much action from Wall Street as the White House, yet financiers are not among the first to drop support for methane gas projects poisoning Black, brown, and Indigenous communities.
With this announcement, the choice for financiers and investors is clear: enact policies needed to protect all human life, such as halting support for fossil fuel expansion, or keep gambling for a profit motive that is increasingly running afoul of government restrictions. Leadership is needed now to save lives on the Gulf and around the world—Wall Street must act as boldly as the White House.
Ginger Cassady is executive director of Rainforest Action Network.
Juan Mancias is chair of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas.
The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
