Freedom Gas

About

Freedom Gas is a term used by the Department of Energy to describe natural gas, who have also used the term "molecules of U.S. freedom" to describe exported natural gas. After the term was spotted in a press release, it was mocked online.

Origin

On May 28th, 2019, the Department of Energy released a press release^[1] about authorizing additional LNG (liquid natural gas) Exports from Freeport LNG. In the press release, U.S. Under Secretary of Energy Mark W. Menezes stated (emphasis added):

“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. Further, more exports of U.S. LNG to the world means more U.S. jobs and more domestic economic growth and cleaner air here at home and around the globe.”

Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Steven Winberg stated (emphasis added):

"With the U.S. 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 U.S. freedom to be exported to the world.”

Spread

The terms were written about disparagingly by several news outlets, including the New York Times,^[3] NBC News,^[4] and Splinter,^[2] who wrote "Everything about our hellworld is stupid, yes, but this, this is something else entirely." NBC News compared the coinage to the infamous period in American history when the House cafeteria rebranded French fries as "Freedom Fries" because France wouldn't support U.S. war efforts in Iraq. Online, users joked about the term. User @SarahNEmerson tweeted that "freedom gas" was actually "whip its," a practice of getting high by sucking air out of whipped cream canisters (shown below, left). User @danbrotherson tweeted that " Nothing can be more ridiculous than the reality we are living in now" (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References