G2 Net-Zero, the Baton Rouge energy company led by Chas Roemer, has pulled its request to export liquefied natural gas and will no longer pursue an LNG plant in Cameron Parish.
In a filing with the Department of Energy, G2 Net-Zero told the agency it plans to withdraw its application for an LNG export permit. The department oversees requests to export LNG to foreign countries.
The company first applied for the permit in 2015, but federal filings show the permit was never approved.
“Since submitting its applications for LNG export authorization, G2 LNG’s corporate focus has shifted away from LNG export activities to development of net-zero greenhouse gas emission energy products,” the company’s latest Department of Energy filing said. “Thus, G2 LNG recently decided to cease development of its previously planned natural gas liquefaction facilities in Cameron Parish.”
G2 Net-Zero — which no longer carries the “LNG” moniker on its company website — had planned to build an LNG export facility on more than 760 acres on the west bank of the Calcasieu Ship Channel, just north of Venture Global LNG’s Calcasieu Pass export terminal at the Gulf of Mexico coast. The firm also had another 500 acres nearby for a possible expansion.
The $11 billion plant would have exported up to 13 million tons of LNG annually.
G2 Net-Zero’s website indicates the company is now pursuing a “blue” ammonia plant somewhere in southwest Louisiana. However, the website does not reveal any details for that facility, and its Department of Energy filing does not mention a “blue” ammonia plant.
Roemer, a former Board of Elementary and Secondary Education member and the son of late Gov. Buddy Roemer, serves as G2 Net-Zero’s chairman. Angele Davis, who served state commissioner of administration under former Gov. Bobby Jindal, is G2 Net-Zero’s CEO.
Officials from G2 Net-Zero did not immediately return requests for comment on the company’s latest plans or the Cameron Parish site’s future.
Both LNG and “blue” ammonia — a form of the common fertilizer ingredient made using carbon capture — have grown in popularity in industrial sectors in recent years as possible methods to reduce industrial carbon dioxide emissions. Support for LNG grew significantly following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 as Europe tried to wean itself off Russian gas.
Despite G2 Net-Zero’s move, the U.S. LNG market is still thriving, said Daphne Magnuson, vice president of strategic communications for the Center for LNG, an industry trade group. Three LNG export terminals are already operating in Louisiana, and another 10 are in various stages of development.
“There’s strong demand for LNG, demonstrated by the fact that currently operating U.S. LNG facilities have been going at full capacity for more than a year,” Magnuson said in a statement.
However, Magnuson acknowledged that opening an LNG plant is an arduous process that can take several years.
“That’s a long timeline and one that not all companies will be able to tolerate,” she said.
Industry advocates say LNG is cleaner than fossil fuel sources such as coal and is needed to give Europe greater energy security.
Environmental groups, however, say that difference is marginal at best and that LNG exporters have used the Ukraine crisis to lock in long-term export deals of the fossil fuel. They’ve also questioned the safety of the state’s LNG plants.
G2 Net Zero’s LNG cancellation is “great news for the people of Cameron Parish,” said Anne Rolfes, director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, which has been pushing back against the state’s LNG plants for years.
In a statement, Rolfes said the fragile coast of southwest Louisiana “should be a fishing paradise — not an industrial wasteland.”
“We know that facilities like the one proposed by G2 are toxic, destroy our coast and make floods more likely. It’s why our movement for a clean, healthy coast, free from the oil, gas and petrochemical industry is succeeding,” Rolfes said.
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