The last thing this planet needs is another liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal and yet that’s exactly what will be built in Alaska—with the blessing of the Biden administration. A draft supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was released last week in order to take into account concerns environmental organizations and the community shared about the proposed Alaska LNG facility. Based on a 36-page fact sheet on the project, which supporters boast is the only one in Alaska to have secured its necessary permits, there certainly isn’t much red tape left to cut through for Alaska Development Corporation, itself a joint project overseen by TransCanada and ExxonMobil.
According to the EIS—which is split up into two volumes—everything from disruption of vegetation and natural environment to air pollution would have a "negligible-to-less-than-significant" impact. As the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner notes, EIS authors concede that, without the project, “energy demand from foreign markets would remain and would need to be fulfilled from an alternate source.” Apparently, it’s the thinking of the Department of Energy that the agency might as well roll over and allow Alaska LNG to come online because it’s simply not worth the fight. Plus, Alaska is so much closer to countries like China—where LNG is typically exported to—than those other terminals in the Gulf of Mexico.
