On the Gulf Coast, as attention has turned to the development of Tropical Storm Francine, employees within Venture Global’s liquified natural gas (LNG) plant in Plaquemines Parish are preparing for the upcoming storm – among other things. Just last week, federal regulators gave Venture Global the go-ahead to start cooling the plant’s equipment ahead of the export of its first cargo of LNG.
Basically, Venture Global is busy. But suddenly, the company found itself the target of a satirical method of opposition known as “trickster activism.”
The first signs of the tricksters came on Sept. 5, when a flurry of email and postcards seemed to hail a new partnership between Venture Global LNG and a company called Repaer, whose jarring mission is to help energy companies offset the loss of human life.
“Loss of life is inevitable in the energy industry,” read Thursday’s press release, “but with Repaer, you can bring those losses to net zero.”
It did seem a little odd that the flurry of glossy postcards arrived in places most likely to oppose Venture Global’s work – in the mailboxes of residents in New Orleans and in Cameron Parish, on the western edge of the state, where Venture Global has already built one of the country’s largest LNG export facilities. Though Venture Global is now building a second, $10 billion facility in Calcasieu Pass, fishers and environmental groups have sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for allowing that construction on top of the other facility, which they say destroys the local fishing industry and adds toxic emissions to an already-polluted area.
The postcard messages, though beautifully designed, were also a little dark.
The postcard sent in Cameron Parish thanked the community for those who have already “sacrificed their lives”— to the increased export of liquified natural gas.
The postcards’ QR code leads to Repaer’s website, which outlines the company’s measurement of the energy industry’s mortal impacts.
Insurance companies widely use a metric called Human Life Value (HLV) to measure the impact of lost lives through economic output.
But Repaer takes it a step farther, describing how its formula differentiates between high and low human life value.
“For instance, a Fortune 500 CEO has a very high HLV, while a teacher or a fisherman has a much lower HLV,” its website explains.
On Monday morning, Venture Global LNG appeared to send a press release threatening legal action against the hoax. But that press release, and all of the messages leading up to it, were fabricated by Modest Proposals, an activist collective dedicated to creating positive change.
The group uses trickster activism, or “laughtivism,” to bring attention to societal ills, in the tradition of political satirists The Yes Men.
“We employ these tactics because of the repressive laws so many states, especially Louisiana, have passed restricting protesters’ rights,” said Jim Haugen, media spokesperson for the Modest Proposals. “When traditional forms of protest are being attacked, activists have to adapt their methods to get their message across.”
You’ve heard of carbon offsets, but what about life offsets?
Beyond thousands of postcards and faux press releases, Modest Proposals created videos to explain Repaer’s “life offsets” program to bring Venture Global LNG’s “human footprint” to net zero.
In New Orleans, Repaer sent postcards promoting a “Plasma Pal” program that encouraged parents to enroll their children in a plasma-donation program, to extend the lives of a wealthy, or “High Life Value” recipient, who would also serve as the child’s mentor.
The postcard directed parents to Repaer’s website, complete with a video of a ‘doctor’ endorsing the program.
“As impurities are released from Venture Global’s facilities, they have unavoidable impacts on lifespan in the surrounding community, creating a human footprint of our operations,” said a voiceover narrating the fake promotional video, a spoof on the concept of “carbon footprint,” a tally of each person’s energy use.
“Life offsets” poke fun at scientifically problematic “carbon offsets,” which allow companies to emit greenhouse gases as usual as long as they “exchange” that activity by – for instance – planting trees that will absorb and store carbon dioxide.
To Modest Proposals, the satirical equivalent of “carbon offsets” would be “life offsets” purchased by Venture Global to extend rich peoples’ lives, Haugen said.
Behind the humor is a serious point.
“Life Offsets may be satirical, but they accurately express Venture Global’s total disregard for residents’ lives,” said Haugen. “They’re constantly emitting pollutants known to cause cancer, cardiovascular disease, and birth defects. They’ve violated their air pollution permits thousands of times. They are a danger to the people of Louisiana.”
Modest Proposals is known for its satirical campaigns. In 2020, they worked with the “non-violent civil disobedience” activist group Extinction Rebellion to send an April Fool’s Day announcement that appeared to come from Google CEO Sundar Pichai: “Today Google Stops Funding Climate Change Deniers.”
And in Superior, Wis., Modest Proposals sent postcards from a fake public safety initiative for Cenovus Superior Refinery called “Husky Friends,” named for Husky, an energy company acquired by Cenovus. This trickster campaign was designed to bring attention to the dangers of hydrogen fluoride, after an announcement that the refinery would rebuild following a 2018 explosion.
In Louisiana, Modest Proposals wants its tricks to bring attention to Venture Global’s repeated violations of air-quality permits, its displacement of Plaquemines Parish residents, and the pressure it placed on federal regulators to build Calcasieu Pass 2, a project that will produce the equivalent emissions of more than 50 coal-fired power plants.
On top of those threats, protest, in the conventional ways, can be difficult in some parts of Louisiana, where law-enforcement officers may be more prone to “shut down” a protest than to allow the expression of free speech.
“Louisiana has so many draconian protest laws that activists have to get creative with how they draw attention to injustice,” said Modest Proposals member Sasha Brown. “Using humor and satire is a great way to not only get attention but also to shine a different light on critical issues.”