When Complete, Lake Charles LNG Terminal Will Produce More GHGs Than Any Terminal In The Country

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An even larger source is on the way. A sprawling LNG facility under construction near Lake Charles, about 40 miles east of the Sabine Pass terminal, is projected to produce substantially more emissions — eclipsing every LNG export terminal built in the United States so far and exceeding the dozens of LNG projects proposed for the next decade, according to a Verite News analysis of state and federal records.

“Wow, that’s really distressing,” said Anne Rolfes, executive director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an environmental group, in response to the findings. Louisiana faces several climate threats exacerbated by greenhouse gas emissions, including rising sea levels and more intense hurricanes. “As Louisiana becomes more vulnerable, we’re just adding to that vulnerability by producing more greenhouse gases,” Rolfes said. “That’s insanity.”

The terminal, called Louisiana LNG, is owned by Woodside Energy, Australia’s biggest oil and gas producer. Construction costs for the terminal are expected to reach nearly $18 billion, which would place the project among the largest foreign investments in Louisiana’s history, according to the state’s Republican governor, Jeff Landry. At the project’s groundbreaking ceremony in September, Landry called the occasion “a great day for Louisiana and an unbelievable day for America.”

The project is expected to support thousands of temporary construction jobs and hundreds of jobs within the completed terminal, while also boosting local tax revenue, according to Louisiana’s economic development agency. Woodside is betting heavily on LNG, a fuel produced by supercooling natural gas into a liquid that’s much easier to store and ship. The company acquired the 1,000-acre site near Lake Charles in 2024 from Houston-based Tellurian, a natural gas company which had begun developing the facility under the name Driftwood LNG. Set to open in 2029, Louisiana LNG is expected to generate more than 9.5 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, according to permitting documents filed with Louisiana regulators. The terminal’s emissions from the liquefaction process and other energy-intensive operations would be much higher than the nearly 7 million tons of greenhouse gases the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says are emitted by the Sabine Pass terminal. They would also exceed the emissions of the seven other terminals that’ve been built across the country over the past 10 years.

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https://grist.org/energy/louisiana-lng-project-pollution-woodside-gas/