Lake Area environmentalists participate in Climate Summit in New York

NEW YORK (KPLC) - It’s climate week in New York, where thousands gathered for a Climate Action Summit. About a dozen environmentalists from our area made the trek to participate.

Thousands participated in protests and other environmental activism during Climate Week. In New York Tuesday, three women from the Lake Area were arrested and cited for allegedly failing to disperse as commanded by police.

Protestors held a news conference Friday outside the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington, D.C. Their opposition to LNG export facilities was one of the big topics.

“This building out LNG is bad for you. It’s bad for the environment. It’s bad for the people they are displacing, forcing out. It’s bad for the fishermen. There’s not a single reason, there’s no facts that line up to say the cost-benefit analysis of these LNGs, it’s not in the public interest. It is actually against the public interest,” said Lake Charles resident James Hiatt with For a Better Bayou.

“What I came for, is to represent all of the coalitions that we are a part of...the Permian Gulf Coast Coalition, The People Versus Fossil Fuels Coalition, the Break Free from Plastics Coalition and so many others,” said Roishetta Ozane, who is also from the Lake Area.

Officials with the Lake Area Industry Alliance said the world needs sustainable, secure and low-carbon energy.

LAIA spokesperson Jim Rock offers the following comments:

“U.S. LNG is the logical long-term solution to help nations around the world to reduce carbon emissions.

“LNG or Liquefied Natural Gas is the same natural gas, which is used safely in households, commercial and industrial facilities including power plants that provide electricity to every community in the country.

“LNG is the key “transition” fuel for the world in an energy transition to an eventual carbon-neutral future. The abundance and availability of gas in the US can allow other parts of the world to take advantage of the cleanest burning fossil fuel to replace coal and retiring nuclear as a fuel and provide it to nations that lack this vital natural resource.

“Our local LNG facilities are built and operated under strict regulations from FERC, PHMSA, OSHA, EPA and LaDEQ with a strong record of safe operations.

“The operating LNG facilities in SWLA are resilient and designed to withstand high winds from weather related events. The operating facilities in the area did not sustain any damage to process equipment due to the hurricanes of 2020.

“LNG exports have allowed reductions of hundreds of millions of tons of CO2 emissions according to the International Energy Agency.”

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