Freedom Gas Rick Perry

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Department of Energy is rebranding natural gas as ‘freedom gas’

It's also 'molecules of U.S. freedom,' apparently.

 

Andrew Wyrich

Internet Culture

Posted on May 30, 2019   Updated on May 20, 2021, 11:36 am CDT

The Department of Energy (DOE), headed by Rick Perry, referred to natural gas exports as “freedom gas” and “molecules of U.S. freedom” in a press release, garnering numerous jokes from people on social media.

DOE Under Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes used the first term—which evoked the use of “freedom fries” to describe french fries in 2003—in a press release issued earlier this week.

“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,” Menezes said in the release.

If “freedom gas” wasn’t enough, Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Steven Winberg continued, calling natural gas “molecules of U.S. freedom.”

“I am 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,” Winberg said.

The use of the two terms to describe natural gas caught the eye of people on social media, including 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Jay Inslee.

“This has to be a joke. (Remember freedom fries?)” Inslee tweeted on Wednesday. “Freedom gas? Freedom is generally good, but freedom from glaciers, freedom from clean air, freedom from healthy forests that aren’t on fire, and freedom from the world we know and cherish is not what we seek.”

But Inslee wasn’t the only one.

https://twitter.com/brianstuckey/status/1133839431130112001

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*First Published: May 30, 2019, 10:27 am CDT