Your tax dollars and health are at risk of supporting the export of fossil fuels.
The Import/Export Bank of our government just lent a billion dollars to the fossil fuel corporations to expand the export of our energy supplies.
Energy independence was supposed to bring us an abundant supply of energy, keeping prices low. Instead of American fuel for Americans, international fossil fuel corporations are selling our energy to the highest bidder around the world.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, the United States is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas at nearly 14 billion cubic feet/per day. This compares to around 90 billion cf/per day used domestically. The Department of Energy is forecasting a rise in exports to 30 cf/per day by 2030.
ExxonMobil and the energy fund of the Qatari monarchical dictatorship are partnering to build new export processing infrastructure in the USA. These facilities regularly leak methane potent greenhouse gas pollutant and further aggravate respiratory diseases. The gas utilities are pushing state regulators to have ratepayers pay for new LNG pipelines. They are conning the American public into thinking it is about having adequate domestic supplies.
According to S&P Global Commodity Insights, U.S. thermal coal exports were expected to hit a level of 43.6 million mt. (*MT refers to metric tonnes or 2,204.62 pounds per ton.) Why are mountaintops in Appalachia being removed, coal miners suffering from black lung disease, rivers polluted with chemicals to process coal, and communities being covered in coal dust to fuel corporate export profits?
Oil products are exported, decreasing the domestic supply, thus raising our cost at the pump. The 1975 law — repealed in 2016 — that banned oil exports needs to be returned to the books.
Platts Analytics sees U.S. exports rising from about 2.9 million barrels per day in 2021 to more than 3.04 million b/d in 2022. Oil refineries release a variety of toxic chemicals into the environment, which can have harmful effects on human health and the ecosystem. These chemicals include carcinogens, neurotoxins, and hazardous metals such as benzene, hydrogen cyanide, lead, and others. Earthjustice.org reports that actual toxic air emissions from many refinery sources, like flares, tanks, and cooling towers, can be 10 or even 100 times higher than what is reported to regulatory agencies.
The Environmental Integrity Project estimates that 81 refineries in the U.S. released 1.6 billion pounds of toxic chemicals into waterways, including chlorides, sulfates, dissolved solids, nitrogen, and selenium. Whatever happened to our right to life? We don’t need more pollution from fracked oil wells, pipelines, port facilities, and refineries to fuel Chinese factories.
Corruptable politicians in Congress take the corporations’ campaign contributions (bribes) and represent the fossil fuel industry instead of us. A report from yaleclimateconnection.org cites an opensecrets.org figure of $359,165,917 in combined fossil fuel lobbying and campaign donations for the 2017-18 election cycle. No doubt higher, now.
When all the exports are burned, the Earth’s temperature heats up from greenhouse gas pollution. Greenland’s ice is rapidly melting. When Greenland ice all turns to water, the oceans jump up nearly 20 feet. Protection for our naval bases, cities, homes, and croplands will cost tens of billions of our taxes.
We own the fossil fuels in the ground. Our fuel is for us, not ExxonMobil. Call your representatives and say no more exports of fossil fuels.
Tom McCormick lives in West Hartford.