Southwest Louisiana has been ravaged by numerous, powerful hurricanes in recent years and the methane-based gas and petrochemical industry has turned the region into a hub of operations–forcing local residents to live in a sacrifice zone. The proliferation of LNG export terminals in the area is raising concerns over point-source pollution and the terminals’ climate impacts.
“They’re an absolute powerhouse for greenhouse gas emissions,” said Naomi Yoder, a staff scientist at Healthy Gulf, told the AP.
Cindy Robertson’s community in Sulphur has endured seven federal disasters in two years. “The more we have more pollution from greenhouse gases,” the 62-year-old organizer whose family worked in coal mining, told the AP, “the worse our storms are going to get.” The U.S. recently became the largest exporter of LNG. Five of eight currently operating terminals are along the Louisiana and Texas coasts and another 16 are proposed, mostly in the same region.
“We have a big homelessness problem … Our schools look horrible. If LNG is doing so much for the state, why is it like that?” Roishetta Ozane, a single mother of six and an organizer for Healthy Gulf, said of tax breaks given to the LNG industry. “I feel Southwest Louisiana has been made a sacrificial lamb,” she said. (AP, AP video)