Department of Energy Leaders Now Calling Natural Gas ‘Freedom Gas’ for Some Reason

Someone should probably check the carbon monoxide detectors at the Department of Energy.

A DOE press release on Tuesday quoted senior officials in the department referring to liquid natural gas as “freedom gas” and “molecules of U.S. freedom to be exported to the world.” Which naturally leads to the question of whether these officials are huffing the fumes of the product they are supposed to be regulating.

The press release was ostensibly to announce that the DOE has approved additional liquid natural gas exports from a facility in Texas. The expanded exports mean as many as 3,000 new engineering and construction jobs at the facility.

It is a serious topic, which makes statements like this, from Under Secretary of Energy Mark W. Menezes, sound even more ridiculous: “Increasing export capacity from the Freeport LNG project is critical to spreading freedom gas throughout the world by giving America’s allies a diverse and affordable source of clean energy.”

Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Steven Winberg said that he was “pleased that the Department of Energy is doing what it can to promote an efficient regulatory system that allows for molecules of U.S. freedom to be exported to the world.”

Menezes is third in command at the Department of Energy.

No word on whether the DOE will refer to future pipeline accidents as “freedom gas explosions.”