AP energy reporter Cathy Bussewitz and national multiformat journalist Martha Irvine led an AP team producing a visually rich, deeply reported package examining a vast expansion of natural gas facilities in coastal Southwest Louisiana that is escalating greenhouse gas emissions, raising global temperatures, fueling extreme weather and imperiling communities.
Reporting from coastal Southwest Louisiana, the AP pair captured the lives of families hurt by a series of devastating hurricanes and other extreme weather linked to a build-out of liquefied natural export terminals. But the two went further: They depicted, with narrative storytelling and distinctive video and photos, an urgent concern: Where once it looked as if the nation might soon shift away from fossil fuel industries, a reversal has occurred. The U.S. has become the world’s largest exporter of LNG, with worrisome consequences for Gulf Coast residents and the planet’s climate, thanks to a surge in global demand intensified by Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Bussewitz and Irvine gained the trust of several residents in the Lake Charles region. One woman was still living in a FEMA trailer while her home stood unrepaired, more than a year after a hurricane had destroyed it. Another kept a stocked pantry box and water-refill station to help struggling neighbors. The journalists also secured rare access inside an LNG facility. They chased LNG tankers down country roads and tracked them on maritime databases to get photos and video of the ships. Irvine’s striking images and video of LNG facilities flaring as the sun rose along the coast were a story unto themselves. And to highlight opposing viewpoints, the two reporters also interviewed LNG advocates, including a school board member who explained why he believes the export facilities will benefit the region’s communities.
The reporters, who collaborated across the Enterprise and Business News departments, partnered with digital artist Francois Duckett who created graphical maps, digital storytelling producer Peter Hamlin who animated the maps and built the presentation, and photojournalist Maye-E Wong, who edited the photo package.
Lydia Larce goes through construction debris at her home in Lake Charles, La., March 31, 2022. More than a year after Hurricane Laura wreaked havoc on the area, Larce is living in a FEMA trailer behind her home. She fears that emissions from the oil and gas industry — including the growing number of liquid natural gas export facilities along the Gulf Coast — will worsen global warming. “Our politicians in D.C., they’re not taking it seriously,” she says.
AP Photo / Martha Irvine
A network of piping makes up pieces of a "train" at Cameron LNG export facility in Hackberry, La., March 31, 2022. Natural gas is cooled at the facility and turned into liquid and sent on massive ships to many parts of the world.
AP Photo / Martha Irvine
A tugboat helps guide a French ship, the LNG Endeavor, through Calcasieu Lake near Hackberry, La., March 31, 2022. The ship was on its way to the Cameron LNG export facility to pick up liquified natural gas. Companies and investors have poured $63 billion into building U.S. LNG export terminals over the past decade and could spend more than $100 billion over the next 20 years, according to an analysis by Rystad Energy.
AP Photo / Martha Irvine
Cindy Robertson stands next to a pantry box she keeps stocked with items for homeless neighbors outside her home in Sulphur, La., March 30, 2022. Robertson is worried about the impact of emissions from export facilities for liquified natural gas. The export facilities are among the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in Louisiana, a state with heavy industrial pollution — and more are planned.
AP Photo / Martha Irvine
Roishetta Ozane drives through Lake Charles, La., March 31, 2022. As she drove, Ozane, clean energy organizer for an organization called Healthy Gulf, pointed out the many homes and businesses that have been damaged or lost during hurricanes in recent years. She is helping lead the fight against the expansion of export facilities for liquified natural gas in the Lake Charles area. Ozane fears emissions from those facilities and others is making climate change and resulting hurricanes worse. “I feel Southwest Louisiana has been made a sacrificial lamb,” Ozane said. “We have to put people before policy.”
AP Photo / Martha Irvine
Eric Tarver talks with employees at the Toyota dealership his family owns in Lake Charles, La., March 30, 2022. Tarver, who’s also a school board member for Calcasieu Parish, is one of many residents who support the expansion of the liquified natural gas industry in the Lake Charles area. Though Louisiana offers a property tax break of 10 years to companies that build LNG terminals there, Tarver says the tax benefits are still huge for the schools and other government agencies. He also says resulting jobs have been a “shot in the arm.” To opponents of the LNG expansion on the Gulf Coast, he says, “The global demand for LNG is going to be there whether the U.S. serves it or not.”
AP Photo / Martha Irvine
With the Venture Global LNG facility in the background, John Allaire throws a fishing net into a body of water on his property in Cameron, La., on Friday, April 1, 2022. Allaire, a retired environmental engineer in the oil and gas industry, is upset about emissions and noise and light pollution from a flare that has been burning frequently since the Venture Global site opened in recent months. He is fighting a second LNG export facility even closer to his property. "They would never do this (on) the coast of New Jersey or California or (the coast of) Florida," he said of the LNG facilities that have proliferated along the Gulf Coast. The proposed plant would ”be a monument to short term planning. And their short term money,” he says.
AP Photo / Martha Irvine
A few news organizations, mostly local or niche environmental publications, have reported previously on this issue, but none have had the depth and range of AP's package, with its data, visuals and reporting on human impact. It speaks volumes that even the Houston Chronicle and Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which pride themselves on their own coverage of the fossil fuel industry in the region, ran the AP package. The story was in the day’s Top 10 on apnews.com and was featured on numerous member websites, from the Philadelphia Inquirer to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The story also created considerable buzz in online environmental circles. The story was shared on Twitter by the Sierra Club, the Texas Campaign for the Environment, the Alliance 4 Affordable Energy and Greenpeace among others. The nonprofit Climate Nexus planned to share the story in its Hot News newsletter.