This article was originally published by PublicSource, a nonprofit newsroom serving the Pittsburgh region. Sign up for its free weekly newsletters at publicsource.org. This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center. “The biggest green initiative on the planet.” That’s what EQT CEO Toby Rice called his company’s exports of liquified natural gas before a Waynesburg crowd in September. The gas the Pittsburgh corporation extracts from the Marcellus Shale - liquified and shipped around the world as LNG - would be a key solution to the world’s warming crisis, Rice said in remarks that echoed messaging in media appearances and at similar “Unleash U.S. LNG” events throughout the region. By then, Earth and its inhabitants had experienced nine months of the hottest year ever recorded, with hundreds of millions of people enduring extreme heat. Smoke from Canadian wildfires - the largest by area in North American history - had blanketed Pittsburgh, Appalachia and much of the United States. Antarctic sea ice shrunk by a record margin, floating in ever warmer ocean waters. Scientists have long warned that methane, the main ingredient in the gas fracked out of Appalachia, is a greenhouse gas 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year span. The International Energy Agency [IEA] has said that if the world is to stay within safe limits of global heating and have a chance at achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, new fossil fuel development must stop immediately. Three years later, Rice and EQT have become a prominent voice - and perhaps the prominent American gas producer - making the argument that their carbon fossil fuel is a key solution to a carbon-caused climate crisis. Rice told those gathered in Waynesburg: “If you care about climate, you should care about unleashing U.S. LNG.” Scientists say that’s dangerously false. “The solution to a problem created by fossil fuels cannot be more fossil fuels,” said... |