When a gas pipeline exploded near Holly Beach in Cameron Parish earlier this month, it left one worker injured and sent an enormous orange fireball and thick clouds of gas into the air.
It also offered a blazing warning of the dangers of the fossil fuel infrastructure that pads the pockets of Big Oil executives while sacrificing Gulf communities.
The pipeline that burst into flames is owned by Delfin LNG, the company behind what would be the first deepwater offshore liquefied natural gas, or LNG, export project in the United States, 40 miles off the Louisiana coast. It’s part of a massive expansion of dangerous oil and gas facilities along the Gulf Coast that threaten communities, wildlife and the climate.
As a longtime Louisiana frontline activist and an environmental lawyer fighting the Trump administration’s illegal licensing of Delfin’s LNG export terminal, we’re all too familiar with the dangers and disasters around fossil fuel projects, and the damage they cause.
The gas pipeline that erupted near Holly Beach is part of a vast network of pipelines that bring gas hundreds of miles to the Gulf Coast from where it’s extracted, usually the Permian Basin in West Texas-New Mexico or the Appalachia Basin in the northeast United States.
Once it reaches Louisiana, it’s liquefied and shipped to buyers overseas. And all along this supply chain, potent methane gas moves through containers and pipes, highly vulnerable to leaks that harm people’s health, hurt wildlife on land and at sea, and intensify the climate crisis.
Pipelines are a particularly risky part of the gas supply chain because they’re prone to ruptures like the one near Holly Beach. When gas hits the air with force, it often ignites, and can cause fires in nearby communities, force evacuations, and injure or even kill workers and residents.
Often these pipelines are placed in Black, Brown, and low-income neighborhoods, a product of systemic inequities that prioritize corporate profit over community safety. The cumulative effects of pollution worsen existing health disparities, leaving these communities more vulnerable to chronic illnesses.
The expansion of the LNG industry is the latest chapter in a long legacy of environmental injustice in the Gulf that disproportionately affects people of color, low-income populations, fishermen, Indigenous communities, and elders and children, who are especially vulnerable to environmental toxins.
The dangers of fossil fuels extend beyond immediate incidents like this month’s pipeline explosion. The entire lifecycle of fossil fuel extraction and consumption contributes to environmental degradation and climate change, disproportionately harming marginalized groups.
Yet the Trump administration is hellbent on rubberstamping new fossil fuel projects, no matter the cost to our bodies, our air and water, wildlife, or even the economy.
In Cameron and Calcasieu Parishes, fishermen say the buildout of several LNG terminals has nearly crushed the local fishing economy, possibly because of the steady dredging and the deep-channel LNG tankers that destroy places where fish and shrimp live. In 2024, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries reported that shrimp hauls in Calcasieu were down 50% compared to a 10-year average.
Meanwhile, LNG export projects are also raising utility bills for households across the country, as shiploads of LNG are sent overseas instead of being used to level prices in domestic markets.
Enough is enough. We don’t need another explosion, rupture or spill to tell us it’s time to halt new fossil fuel projects. Those of us fighting these projects, especially those of us living next door to their toxic pollution, are tired of being patient while the Trump administration rubberstamps more ruinous fossil fuel expansion.
Our communities deserve more than apologies after disaster strikes. We need enforceable safety protocols that prevent these failures in the first place. Instead, a recent report from the Environmental Integrity Project found widespread violations of the Clean Air Act by all of the nation’s operational LNG export terminals. Locally, Cameron LNG racked up “high priority” violations for 11 of 12 quarters and Calcasieu Pass violated the Clean Air Act every quarter for a nearly three-year-period starting in October 2022.
Industry must be held accountable — not with symbolic fines, but with enforcement that changes behavior and puts people before profits. Affected communities need meaningful safeguards, emergency protections, and a seat at the table when decisions are made about projects that put their lives at risk.
Roishetta Sibley Ozane is the founder and CEO of the Vessel Project in Southwest Louisiana. Lauren Parker is an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.
