According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), as of July 2022, the United States had the largest LNG export capacity in the world and had exported more LNG than any other nation.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, LNG is natural gas that has been cooled to around minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit so that it is in a liquid state and can be delivered and stored more conveniently. Natural gas may be carried farther when it is in a liquid condition because it has around 600 times less volume than when it is in a gaseous state and can thus be transferred to locations that are too remote from natural gas production facilities to be connected to pipelines.
The export of crude oil from the United States hit a record high of over four million barrels per day in September of last year, according to Inside Climate News, despite declining demand for oil as renewables continue to increase.
According to Inside Climate News, Josh Axelrod, a senior campaigner in the Nature Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), is all about the industry establishing a claim to a future role. Oil has limited room for expansion in the U.S. market, thus one of their numerous strategies to continue operating and expanding even as climate change worsens is to secure export destinations and capacity.
According to data from the EIA, until September 2022, more than 15% of the natural gas and approximately 30% of the crude oil produced in the U.S. were exported, and this trend is expected to continue.
According to Inside Climate News, the Biden administration approved the construction of the largest oil export terminal in the United States around the end of last year. This terminal is expected to begin operations at the end of 2025.
Three more LNG export terminals are being built, and many of the export projects are located in areas with sizable populations of Black and Latino people who already have to contend with petrochemical factories and oil and gas terminals.
Natural gas liquefaction requires a lot of energy, therefore LNG terminals emit a lot of greenhouse gases throughout the process.
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The largest LNG port in the United States, Sabine Pass, Texas, produced 6.17 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2021, which is about equivalent to 1.5 standard coal power plants, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Gas corporations have claimed that exporting LNG can reduce global greenhouse gas emissions if it results in fewer coal power plants being utilized abroad, according to Inside Climate News.
According to a 2020 NRDC study, using LNG from the United States exported to Asia or Europe results in around 30% less greenhouse gas emissions over a 20-year period than coal.
According to Daily Energy Insider, U.S. LNG exports have continued to expand as a result of rising LNG and natural gas prices worldwide, growing LNG demand, particularly in Europe, and additional LNG export capacity.
About 64% of U.S. LNG exports during the first five months of 2022 went to the UK and the EU.
Due to historically low natural gas inventories as well as fewer natural gas pipeline imports from Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine, LNG imports from European nations have grown.
