Venture Global LNG, a behemoth in the liquified natural gas (LNG) industry and the largest U.S. exporter to China, has sure had a hard time holding itself accountable since its Calcasieu Pass facility opened in January. The facility sprung up in Southwest Louisiana in just three years—the fastest such construction time of an LNG terminal—which certainly raised suspicions about safety and Venture Global adhering to basic operational standards. Venture Global has proven those misgivings correct, according to a recent report from the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Among the nonprofit’s findings? The fact that Venture Global couldn’t even be bothered to obtain a measly $500 permit so it could legally poison the Cameron Parish community with 180,000 pounds of greenhouse gases, which it emitted anyway on January 18th.
The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ), which oversees such permits and their enforcement, has mostly thrown up its hands and decided to continue throwing permit opportunities at operators like Venture Global instead of holding them accountable. LDEQ found that a “combination of a failure in the management of change process, lack of adherence to procedures, and lack of training” is what led to the release—but that didn’t stop the agency from handing Venture Global a permit that allowed it to release 2,052,000 cubic feet of natural gas, or more than 100,000 pounds, from its Calcasieu Pass facility’s north tank in March.
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Speaking during a Wednesday morning press conference, John Allaire—a geologist with decades of experience in the oil and gas industry who I’ve previously written about—laid out his concerns about yet another permitting issue Venture Global has seemingly ignored. The company must adhere to a strict schedule of flaring. But Allaire, who lives just a few miles from the Calcasieu Pass facility, has witnessed seemingly non-stop flaring.
“One of the biggest concerns to me,” Allaire said, “is their permit and their environmental impact statement said they would not be flaring at night during the neotropical bird migration, which happens in late March to the end of June, and that they would be monitoring for birds and that sort of thing.” Allaire observed flames “as high as the flare itself” at night but said there appeared to be no reporting of lost birds, indicating a seeming lack of reporting at all.
This lack of even basic interest in accountability points to not only Venture Global’s failures but LDEQ’s as an agency. Also at issue was the amount of black smoke billowing from those flares, which Venture Global consistently claimed fell under its 20% opacity threshold as required by a permit it readily obtained from LDEQ. Allaire suggested the company rely on real-time monitoring by using a calibrated opacity monitor instead of simply responding to citizen complaints, which involves Venture Global’s own employees measuring opacity after the fact. Allaire and Bucket Brigade Southwest Louisiana Organizer James Hiatt weren’t sure how much those monitor systems could cost and frankly, neither am I.
Though some estimates put the technology at around $25,000, not including training and maintenance, I was unable to find a definitive answer from any regional manufacturer of such devices. One person claimed their office was empty, another transferred me to a line that hung up on me, and my online information request has so far gone unanswered. Given the oil and gas industry’s notorious lack of transparency, I’m doubtful I’ll ever get a response. And, even if opacity monitors cost double that $25,000, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the billions Venture Global’s raised for its LNG terminal ambitions.
With plans to open one facility in Plaquemines Parish and another in Southeast Louisiana, communities can’t afford to have the entire state of Louisiana sacrificed on behalf of fossil fuel greed. And the world certainly can’t afford the estimated 90 million more tons of greenhouse gases being emitted annually once these planned facilities come online.