US Department of Energy Is Now Referring to LNG as “Freedom Gas”

"Freedom gas" and "molecules of freedom" will help Europe to second liberation by the United States

“The United States is again delivering a form of freedom to the European continent. And rather than in the form of young American soldiers, it’s in the form of liquefied natural gas.” Perry told Europeans earlier this month

Call it a rebranding of “energy dominance.”

In a press release published on Tuesday, two Department of Energy officials used the terms “freedom gas” and “molecules of US freedom” to replace your average, everyday term “natural gas.”

The press release was fairly standard, announcing the expansion of a Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) terminal at the Freeport facility on Quintana Island, Texas. It would have gone unnoticed had an E&E News reporter not noted the unique metonymy “molecules of US freedom.”

DOE Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Steven Winberg is quoted as saying, “With the US in another year of record-setting natural gas production, I am pleased that the Department of Energy is doing what it can to promote an efficient regulatory system that allows for molecules of US freedom to be exported to the world.”

Also in the press release, US Under Secretary of Energy Mark W. Menezes refers to natural gas as “freedom gas” in his quote: “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.”

Slate notes that the term “freedom gas” seems to have originated from an event with DOE Secretary Rick Perry. Earlier this year, the secretary signed an order to double the amount of LNG exports to Europe, saying, “The United States is again delivering a form of freedom to the European continent. And rather than in the form of young American soldiers, it’s in the form of liquefied natural gas.”

A reporter at the order signing jokingly asked whether the LNG shipments should be called “freedom gas,” and Perry said, “I think you may be correct in your observation.”

If the DOE is still running with the term as a joke, then the wit in the Energy Secretary’s office is bone dry. Ars contacted the DOE to see if “freedom gas” and “molecules of US freedom” are now going to be standard in department communication with the public. We are also curious if any potential drop in LNG exports could result in patriotism bloat. The DOE has not responded, though we’ll update the story if it does.

According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), Canada, Mexico, South Korea, and Japan were the top importers of freedom gas last year. China, India, and the UK buy a smaller number of molecules of US freedom.

Source: ARS Technica

11 Comments
  1. JustPassingThrough says

    Molecule: slang word for “pure” MDMA, or Ecstacy.
    Ecstasy is currently being tested for use with PTSD and other emotional traumas.

    Recommend that the DOE start inhaling their molecules of freedom asap.

  2. Mikhail Garchenko says

    I´m more and more amazed, by their superb grade of plain stupidity.

  3. Jesus says

    US LNG shipments to Europe are still minimal in context of overall natural gas consumption, primary reason being its uncompetitive price followed consequences of trade wars. The Chinese market is tariffed on US LNG, so US is using political extortion to open up some new markets……while Russia laughs all the way to the bank.

  4. John C Carleton says

    There has been nothing free or any free people in America since the Confederate military surrendered to the USA baby raping mass murderers in 1865.
    http://www.johnccarleton.org/BLOGGER/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/rebs.jpg

  5. thomas malthaus says

    If cows could speak. . . .

  6. cap960 says

    From freedom fries to Molecules of freedom…Yanks are funny!

  7. CHUCKMAN says

    This is the contemporary equivalent to the “Freedom Fries” replacing “French Fries” in restaurants around the time of America’s illegal Iraq invasion, something France opposed at the UN.

    A lot of fine French wine was publicly dumped by “patriotic” restaurants then too.

    In WWI, sauerkraut disappeared from American menus to be replaced by “Victory Cabbage,”

    Americans are such a bunch of babies.

    Truly, whiny babies.

    And they’ve found their perfect president in Trump, a world-class whiny baby.

    1. Promitheas Apollonious says

      babies……. babies are neither stupid and definitely, not low IQ as the americans show themselves to be. They are just babies.

  8. Vish says

    America is certainly passing a lot of “Freedom Gas”–out through its anus, as well as its other bodily orifice!

  9. Séamus Ó Néill says

    The first form of “freedom” the US gave Europe, was when they were delivering tanks and planes to Hitler’s Germany….The Russians won that war. The second form of “freedom” is to bully and sanction everyone into buying something they don’t want and at a price they can’t afford ! Good old America , laughably stupid !

  10. […] U.S. officials want to help ease Europeans’ concerns about how they’ll heat their homes this winter, according to people familiar with the private discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity. [Where are the US “freedom molecules”?] […]

Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Anti-Empire