“LNG is not a bridge fuel to clean energy,” said one expert. “It’s a highway to climate hell.”
On the heels of Hurricane Helene devastating the U.S. Southeast and sparking fresh calls for action on the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency, a long-awaited study revealed Thursday that the planet-heating pollution from liquefied natural gas is worse than that of coal.
“Liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from the United States have risen dramatically since the LNG-export ban was lifted in 2016, and the United States is now the world’s largest exporter,” wrote Cornell University scientist Robert Howarth, who analysed the greenhouse gas footprint of LNG produced in and exported from the U.S.
Howarth found that “the greenhouse gas footprint for LNG as a fuel source is 33% greater than that for coal” in terms of its 20-year global warming potential, and “even considered on the time frame of 100 years after........