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On November 11, Sempra LNG, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, submitted an export proposal to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Sempra explained in a press release,

Sempra Energy has become the sixth US company, and fourth in the US Gulf, with formal intentions to export US natural gas as LNG (liquefied natural gas), having filed a request with US regulators…The California-based company asked the US Department of Energy (DOE) for consent to send up to 1.7 billion cubic feet (bcf)/day (0.05 million cubic metres/day) to free-trade-friendly countries for 20 years. Sempra said the [this] was the first in a two-part process, with a request to export to non-free-trade nations to follow.

This comes on the heels of the huge announcement by Cheniere Energy, Inc. and BG Group, in which the two corporations agreed to work together to export natural gas from the Sabine Pass LNG Export Terminal located on the Gulf Coast in Louisiana to the global market. DeSmogBlog covered that deal in depth in an article titled, "Massive Natural Gas Export Deal Inked by BG Group, So Much for Industry's 'Domestic Energy' Claims."

Sempra's prospective LNG export facility is located on the Calcasieu Channel, 18 miles from the Gulf of Mexico in Hackberry, La, which is approximately 148 miles east of Houston, Texas, and 230 miles west of New Orleans, Louisiana. It appears much of the gas will be shipped off to Europe, as in August 2005, Sempra LNG signed an agreement with Eni, an Italian oil and gas conglomerate, to supply 40 percent of their LNG export capacity to Eni. 

Fracking for unconventional gas for "energy independence" and "national security" purposes? Once again, the facts reveal the contrary.

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This is a guest post by Glenn Hurowitz, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy. It originally appeared on Grist.org, and is reprinted here with permission.

Everything you’ve heard about the tar sands and energy security is wrong
by Glenn Hurowitz

If there’s a single idea that the oil industry has peddled to persuade the Obama administration to approve the controversial Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline, it’s this: Tar-sands oil might be more polluting than even dirty old regular oil, but it’s better to get our energy from our ally Canada than from unstable oil suppliers in the Middle East or elsewhere.

In practice, the opposite is true: Drilling in North America is the single greatest threat to our nation’s energy security.

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Touted by industry as a “clean energy” panacea, unconventional gas is widely heralded as deliverance from air pollution to global warming to foreign energy dependence. It is clean, the drillers say, and there is plenty of it. Descriptions like ‘trillions of cubic feet’ and ‘more than a century’s worth’ are becoming commonplace, used to prop up the vision of a clean, affordable and homegrown unconventional gas future.

But like most things that sound too good to be true, unconventional gas is no exception, as DeSmogBlog pointed out in our own recent report “Fracking the Future.”

Now, continuing to dispel some of the most egregious misconceptions regarding the future of gas, Post Carbon Institute Fellow David Hughes recently released a new report entitled Will Natural Gas Fuel America in the 21st Century?

In his report, Hughes takes on three myths undergirding our gas ambitions: that hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have guaranteed our access to a century’s worth of fuel; that the price of natural gas, which has been historically volatile, will remain low; and that, from a global warming and public health perspective, natural gas is a clean and safe alternative to other fossil fuels.

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Last week, US Senators Robert Casey (D-PA) and Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) reintroduced legislation to the Senate that would close the oversight gap that the gas industry has taken full advantage of since 2005. The “Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act,” commonly known as the FRAC Act, would close the Halliburton Loophole in Dick Cheney’s infamous 2005 Energy Policy Act, which exempted hydraulic fracturing from the auspices of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).

Hydraulic fracturing is used in 90% of all unconventional natural gas wells in the U.S. and involves the injection of millions of gallons of water, sand and dangerous chemicals into the ground. The bill would also require that the natural gas industry publicly disclose the chemicals they use to drill for unconventional gas. These chemicals, including potent cancer-causing agents, are protected as industry trade secrets.

The FRAC Act was originally introduced as a set of twin bills to the House and Senate in 2009 but died in the last session of Congress. According to new supporter Senator Frank Lautenberg, the FRAC Act will give the EPA the necessary backing to, at the very least, properly investigate and assess the risks associated with hydraulic fracturing.

The industry’s aggressive lobbying campaign against the FRAC Act is part of a larger agenda to limit federal oversight of gas drilling. The legal void created by the Energy Policy Act in 2005 essentially crippled the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ability to properly monitor the boom in gas fracking activity, especially the potentially serious threat to drinking water supplies. A long history of industry pressure on EPA scientists is also present on this issue, leading to the narrowing of scope in the EPA’s investigations and the elimination of critical findings when it comes to certain fracking threats.

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In a recent interview with NY Times Magazine, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) brushed off the national security concerns raised by 5 retired US generals who testified at a Senate Committee hearing on clean energy by saying that:

“There are a lot of generals who don’t like to be out of the limelight. They’d like to get back in”

These war veterans are ticked to say the least, and will be holding a press conference tomorrow in response to Inhofe’s dismissive and disrespectful statement.

According to the release,

“Military officials and veterans will hold a new conference call tomorrow at 1 p.m. ET to set the record straight on the national security threat climate change poses and call on Sen. Inhofe to apologize for his recent statement accusing military generals that are advocating for clean energy reform as merely engaging in a publicity stunt to get back into “the limelight.”

Stay tuned. We’ll cover this tomorrow.

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Operation Free, a coalition of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and national security organizations, today slammed the ‘Energy Citizens’ Astroturf campaign orchestrated by the American Petroleum Institute and other Big Oil interests as a detriment to America’s energy security.

“Veterans understand the connection between energy security, climate change and national security,” said Jon Powers, Chief Operating Officer of the Truman National Security Project and an Iraq war vet.

Describing climate change as a “threat multiplier” for the armed forces, Powers denounced the ‘Energy Citizens’ campaign, stating that Big Oil does not have America’s best interests at heart.  “Veterans do not want to see America’s national security in the hands of Big Oil,” said Powers during the press teleconference today.