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For Immediate Release
Contact:

Darcey Rakestraw, 202-683-2467; drakestraw@fwwatch.org

DOE Release Touts Exports of "U.S. Molecules of Freedom" in Orwellian News Release

WASHINGTON

Yesterday, the Department of Energy announced that it had authorized additional exports of liquified natural gas from the Freeport LNG terminal in Texas. The release quoted officials as saying the product would spread "freedom gas" and that the agency was advancing a "regulatory system that allows for molecules of U.S. freedom to be exported to the world.

In response, Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter released the following statement:

"The Trump administration's pursuit of fossil fuels-based 'Energy Dominance' has reached Orwellian new heights in its propaganda. These statements from DOE officials are both absurd and dangerous. Trump's "Freedom Gas" leaves us shackled to several more decades of climate-destroying fossil fuels. Fracked gas exports don't promote freedom - just climate catastrophe.

"What the administration is really saying here is that it wants to enrich its industry cronies while locking the globe into dangerous pollution that our Earth cannot sustain. It's also saying that it doesn't care about communities saddled with the toxic air and water that are a result of this infrastructure buildout.

"What's more, these statements were made at a Clean Energy Ministerial in Canada. The administration couldn't be more out of touch with the reality of our climate crisis or more dismissive of the impacts of burning fossil fuels.

"We are appalled, but sadly, not surprised."

Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people's health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.

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