A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The global market for energy is in disarray because of the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran, which has blocked the path many oil tankers take. The Gulf States Newsroom's Drew Hawkins reports that U.S. companies see an opportunity to export more liquefied natural gas.
(SOUNDBITE OF WAVES LAPPING)
DREW HAWKINS, BYLINE: Phillip Dyson has fished the coastal waters of Cameron, Louisiana, for more than 50 years. Shrimpers like him are catching less than half of what they used to five years ago, according to the state's Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
PHILLIP DYSON: Probably the last five years been declined since they built this LNG. I can't imagine another five years.
HAWKINS: The Gulf Coast is ground zero for America's liquefied natural gas, or LNG, exports. When LNG supplies surged, fueled by the fracking boom in the late 2000s, companies needed new buyers, and they looked overseas, building these massive terminals to ship LNG. During construction on one of them, there was a dredge spill last summer that killed oyster beds in the area. Now, it's not clear whether the spill or warmer water temperatures or other environmental factors affect the shrimp catches. But Dyson thinks the ships and construction from those terminals may be contributing to fewer shrimp.
DYSON: They won't come in. I'm assuming that's the reason.
HAWKINS: And the LNG expansion isn't just up ending communities like Cameron. It's now at the center of a global energy crisis. Tyson Slocum is an energy analyst with Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group. He says Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz sent shock waves through natural gas markets in Europe and Asia. Qatar, one of the largest LNG producers on earth, shut down all of its exports.
TYSON SLOCUM: And so what this means is a massive financial windfall for U.S. LNG exporters.
HAWKINS: While natural gas prices have increased sharply in Europe and Asia, they haven't done so in the U.S. Many oil and gas industry experts say this country will be largely protected from natural gas price spikes this year because companies are already exporting about as much natural gas as they can, more than 14 billion cubic feet a day. The U.S. would need additional LNG terminals. The war in Iran, Slocum says, could push the U.S. industry to try to export more.
SLOCUM: Because the more they're able to produce, the higher their windfall profit is going to be.
(SOUNDBITE OF WAVES LAPPING)
HAWKINS: For shrimpers like Phillip Dyson in Cameron, Louisiana, the ledger is already in the red, and he says he knows he'll eventually have to give it up.
DYSON: It's getting worse and worse by the day here.
HAWKINS: Across the country, more than a dozen new LNG export terminals are already under construction or approved. Six of them are in southwest Louisiana.
For NPR News, I'm Drew Hawkins in Cameron, Louisiana.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.