{"id":318821,"date":"2024-04-18T12:08:46","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T10:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=318821"},"modified":"2024-04-18T12:08:48","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T10:08:48","slug":"is-bidens-war-on-lng-the-new-anti-nuclearism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=318821","title":{"rendered":"Is Biden\u2019s War on LNG the New Anti-Nuclearism?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Patrick Hynes<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

April 08, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the aftermath of the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear accident, then-Senator Joe Biden voted for a \u201ctemporary pause<\/a>\u201d on reactor permitting, despite no credible evidence of public harm from radiation. Although the measure failed, the nuclear industry never recovered from this political overreaction based on exaggerated fears. Forty-five years later, President Biden has unilaterally ordered a \u201ctemporary pause<\/a>\u201d on the permitting of liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminals \u2013 a move the Washington Post<\/em><\/a> editorial board aptly labeled \u201ca win for political symbolism, not the climate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, why are Biden\u2019s usual allies, including some Congressional Democrats<\/a>, taking the gas industry\u2019s side? Mainly, because the decision harms the U.S. geopolitical and economic security \u2013 and climate efforts. With anti-nuclearism in our rearview<\/a>, the president should know better than to listen to degrowth-oriented environmentalists<\/a> who cheered<\/a> the pause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long before LNG met resistance from mainstream green groups, nuclear energy was their primary target. They amplified fears about radiation and leveraged celebrity influence to communicate these supposed risks to young people. For example, Jane Fonda\u2019s movie The China Syndrome, which depicts a reactor meltdown burning through the earth\u2019s core, was released just days before Three Mile Island,  fueling public confusion. Despite no evidence of public radiation harm, the reputational damage slowed the industry\u2019s growth. Over the next few decades, coal<\/a> replaced reactors that would have been built, and emissions accelerated until peaking in the mid-2000s when plentiful natural gas led to significant decarbonization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden\u2019s LNG export terminal pause resulted from a similar campaign including many of the same organizations recycling the same tactics. Fonda was even involved, this time utilizing TikTok <\/a>to reach Gen Z audiences. Because they have significant White House access and political capital in an election year, Biden took their bait and went to war with fossil fuels to appease young, progressive voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of the reason for the widespread skepticism of the pause is that it relies on highly dubious findings in one non-peer-reviewed study by a highly <\/a>controversial<\/a> professor with a history of publishing discredited<\/a> reports on methane. It suggests that other analyses, including the <\/a>Department of Energy\u2019s<\/a>, underreport methane leakage by such a large margin that LNG is actually worse than coal for the climate. It\u2019s oddly similar to arguments that anti-nuclear activists made in the 1970s, like when a Sierra Club executive <\/a>claimed<\/a>: \u201cUnlike nuclear, which risks long-term genetic damage, coal\u2019s impacts won\u2019t be felt generations from now.\u201d In both cases, coal was the preferred resource for these activists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In reality, the U.S. oil and gas sector already has the world\u2019s lowest methane leakage rates and is leading efforts to track, capture, and monetize fugitive methane innovatively. Leakage declined by 28%<\/a> between 2019 and 2021 alone. As Freeport LNG\u2019s Chairman Michael Smith<\/a> emphasized at CERA Week, \u201cEvery single one of us makes our money selling methane. We don\u2019t want to release it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conversely, Russia, the world\u2019s second largest producer<\/a> of natural gas, has little concern over methane leaks. The Department of Energy study<\/a> Howarth claims to debunk found Russia\u2019s methane emissions rate 4-5 times higher than U.S. LNG\u2019s 1% level, though still cleaner than coal. The Kremlin\u2019s lax standards also played a major role in the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident. At Three Mile Island, higher standards and risk aversion protocols inherent in a capitalist system prevented the accident from turning into a catastrophe \u2013 though hysteria still caused investment flight to coal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If idealistic politicians succeed in removing U.S. LNG from the global market, it will lead to the double whammy of increased coal and dirtier natural gas from emissions-agnostic countries like Russia. Like nuclear, the LNG export sector is highly vulnerable to political disruptions. A rejected export terminal, much like a failed reactor, can erode investor confidence enough to reverse the industry\u2019s momentum. A German state-owned gas importer, <\/a>SEFE<\/a>, has already turned to Russia in response to the pause, and other committed buyers like <\/a>Malaysia<\/a> are reportedly getting cold feet. These developments are neither good for global security nor the climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it may seem far-fetched that this pause could pose an existential threat to U.S. LNG exports, one need only look back to 1979 when few could have foreseen that only two new nuclear reactors would be built in the subsequent 45 years. Now that we realize how regressive that was in the fight against climate change, the president has no excuse to repeat the same mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patrick Hynes is a fellow with ConservAmerica.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the aftermath of the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear accident, then-Senator Joe Biden voted for a \u201ctemporary pause\u201d on reactor permitting, despite no credible evidence of public harm from radiation. Although the measure failed, the nuclear industry never recovered from this political overreaction based on exaggerated fears. Forty-five years later, President Biden has unilaterally ordered a \u201ctemporary pause\u201d on the permitting of liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminals \u2013 a move the Washington Post editorial board aptly labeled \u201ca win for political symbolism, not the climate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":318823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818056,691827050,691818366,691824035,691818772],"class_list":{"0":"post-318821","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-climate-change","9":"tag-liquified-natural-gas-lng","10":"tag-methane","11":"tag-nuclear-reactors","12":"tag-u-s-president-joe-biden","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0vogtle_nuclear_power_plant.jpg?fit=1600%2C1062&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1kWh","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":429515,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=429515","url_meta":{"origin":318821,"position":0},"title":"Nuclear at 70: Federal Subsidies and Regulation Did Not Work","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/03\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Sorry for the bad news. 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