{"id":41905,"date":"2018-12-22T09:09:49","date_gmt":"2018-12-22T14:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=41905"},"modified":"2018-12-22T09:09:49","modified_gmt":"2018-12-22T14:09:49","slug":"fossil-fuels-and-climate-denial-still-reign-in-louisiana-despite-scientists-dire-warnings-for-the-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=41905","title":{"rendered":"Fossil Fuels and Climate Denial Still Reign in Louisiana Despite Scientists\u2019 Dire Warnings for the State"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 id=\"page-title\" class=\"page__title title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/2018\/12\/21\/fossil-fuels-climate-denial-reign-louisiana-scientists-dire-warnings\">Fossil Fuels and Climate Denial Still Reign in Louisiana Despite Scientists\u2019 Dire Warnings for the State<\/a><\/h3>\n<article class=\"node-13386 node node-blog node-promoted view-mode-full clearfix\">\n<div class=\"field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/sites\/beta.desmogblog.com\/files\/styles\/full_width_blog_image\/public\/blogimages\/602A3069-Edit-2.jpg?itok=Wn-vww9R\" alt=\"Christmas lights on homes across from the Meraux Refinery in Meraux, New Orleans. \" width=\"810\" height=\"523\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"new-horizontal-social-bar clearfix\">\n<div class=\"new-horizontal-share-wrapper new-horizontal-fb-wrapper clearfix\">Louisiana is ground zero for the devastating impacts of climate change. Even though the state is already feeling the costly impacts to life and property due to extreme weather and an eroding coastline linked to a warming planet, its government continues to ignore\u00a0the primary cause \u2014 human use of fossil\u00a0fuels.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p>The impacts to the region, such as worsening floods, heat waves, and sea level rise, will only be intensified as the globe continues warming, warn federal scientists in the latest National Climate Assessment\u00a0report.<\/p>\n<p>But instead of heeding scientists\u2019 warnings, Louisiana\u2019s government\u00a0continues to welcome the prospects of new billion-dollar <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theadvocate.com\/baton_rouge\/opinion\/our_views\/article_2d9ec46c-f401-11e8-a5ec-cb526d534750.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">petrochemical plants<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/2018\/12\/20\/louisiana-calcasieu-driftwood-lng-export-tellurian-tax-break\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">liquefied natural gas (<span class=\"caps\">LNG<\/span>) facilities<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theadvocate.com\/new_orleans\/news\/business\/article_35de301e-ab94-11e8-a639-0f1280be888b.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an oil export hub<\/a>, all without a mention of their climate change\u00a0impacts.<\/p>\n<p>Leading the pack, Gov. John Bel Edwards continues to gush over turning Louisiana into a world leader in <a href=\"http:\/\/gov.louisiana.gov\/news\/gov-edwards-and-venture-global-executives-announce-85-billion-lng-complex\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">natural gas<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opportunitylouisiana.com\/led-news\/news-releases\/news\/2018\/08\/29\/plaquemines-port-pursues-crude-oil-export-terminal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">oil<\/a>exports.<\/p>\n<p>Louisiana politicians continue to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/2017\/02\/24\/louisiana-senator-bill-cassidy-pushes-natural-gas-climate-solution-contentious-town-hall-meetings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">claim natural gas is a \u201cclean\u201d source of energy<\/a>, and usher in not only <span class=\"caps\">LNG<\/span> facilities, but also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theadvocate.com\/baton_rouge\/opinion\/our_views\/article_2d9ec46c-f401-11e8-a5ec-cb526d534750.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">petrochemical plants fueled by natural gas\u00a0production<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In Plaquemines Parish, a peninsula south of New Orleans that, like all of southern Louisiana, is plagued by coastal erosion, the governor has hailed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opportunitylouisiana.com\/led-news\/news-releases\/news\/2018\/08\/29\/plaquemines-port-pursues-crude-oil-export-terminal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">new\u00a0crude oil\u00a0export terminal<\/a> and a massive <a href=\"http:\/\/venturegloballng.com\/plaquemines-project\/#.XBssEy2ZMc0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"caps\">LNG<\/span> facility<\/a> that don\u2019t yet have\u00a0permits.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Embracing Fossil Fuels But Ignoring Climate\u00a0Warnings<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/sites\/beta.desmogblog.com\/files\/John%20Bel%20Edwards03%20copy.jpeg\" alt=\"Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards\" \/><br \/>\n<em>Gov.\u00a0John\u00a0Bel\u00a0Edwards, when he was still a candidate for Louisiana Governor at a Democratic Party fundraiser in New Orleans in\u00a02015.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I asked the governor\u2019s press secretary what he thought about the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nca2018.globalchange.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fourth National Climate Assessment,<\/a>\u00a0an exhaustive review of environmental data by a team of hundreds of\u00a0scientists\u00a0that puts Louisiana square in <a href=\"https:\/\/nca2018.globalchange.gov\/chapter\/19\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the eye of physical and financial hardship<\/a> due to climate change \u2014 and got no\u00a0reply.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fossil Fuels and Climate Denial Still Reign in Louisiana Despite Scientists\u2019 Dire Warnings for the State Louisiana is ground zero for the devastating impacts of climate change. Even though the state is already feeling the costly impacts to life and property due to extreme weather and an eroding coastline linked to a warming planet, its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[141,1517,5317,328,11518,2034],"class_list":["post-41905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-denial","tag-desmog-blog","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-julie-dermansky","tag-louisiana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41906,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41905\/revisions\/41906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}