Madness Is The Method: How Cheniere is Greenwashing its LNG With New Cargo Emissions Tags
Our new report finds that Cheniere’s new lifecycle emissions tags appear to be pinned to a misleading methane emissions analysis that woefully undercounts actual leakage volumes.
Published by Oil Change International and Greenpeace USA
August 2022
As American gas producers work to cash-in on Europe’s energy crisis, they are seeking to greenwash U.S. gas exports using various methane gas “certification” schemes. The latest example is Cheniere Energy’s cargo emissions tags, which the company last week revealed it has started providing to its customers since June. Our new report finds that Cheniere’s new lifecycle emissions tags appear to be pinned to a misleading methane emissions analysis that woefully undercounts actual leakage volumes.
Despite a lack of transparency and oversight, foreign energy buyers like France’s Engie and ESG investors like Japan’s SMBC are already acting on the assumption that Cheniere is implementing an effective emissions program. This report demonstrates the infirmities associated with Cheniere’s flawed methodology and its latest public relations campaign.
Key Points:
Cheniere’s emissions estimates substantially underestimate methane emissions from the fossil fuel industry. These estimates would be higher for plants receiving feedgas from the Permian Basin, which has one of the worst methane emissions rates in the country.
When accurate emissions data, incorporating high-emissions events, are used, full lifecycle emissions increase dramatically.
Cheniere claims its methodology is “supplier-specific”, but 42% of the gas supply assessed in the paper is pooled gas for which no supplier-specific data exists.
Cargo emissions tags do nothing to alleviate the burdens the gas industry imposes on frontline communities. To the contrary, Cheniere is simultaneously seeking an exemption from the Biden administration to dump greater amounts of health-damaging air pollution in local communities.