May 19 (UPI) — U.S. officials announced Monday that Louisiana’s McNeese State University will be site of the federal government’s new national center for liquefied natural gas safety.
The university in Lake Charles was selected by officials to be the site of the “National Center of Excellence for Liquefied Natural Gas Safety” as a subsidiary part of the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
“The sheer volume of product supplied by the state of Louisiana is unparalleled and growing, and there is no better place to locate our Center of Excellence,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
McNeese State, the first U.S. undergraduate institution to offer a certificate program in the business of liquefied natural gas, is already the site of its own LNG Center of Excellence.
It was described as a “game-changer” for the region in terms of workforce development and “groundbreaking research.”
“We are excited to be on the forefront of helping ensure safety and sustainability in the energy sector and look forward to working with PHMSA to develop a world-class facility to house their staff,” Dr. Wade Rousse, president of McNeese State University, said Monday.
2020’s Protecting our Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety Act, otherwise known as the PIPE Act, established the center with the aim to “enhance” the United States as the “leader and foremost expert” in LNG operations to facilitate research and development, training, regulatory coordination and to encourage development of LNG safety solutions.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., explained that in 2020 Congress passed the PIPES Act which, he claimed, “improved pipeline safety and infrastructure” in the United States as he also thanked the Trump administration.
The Louisiana Republican, 73, was critical of the Biden administration’s perceived “hostility” toward fossil fuel industry industry.
Last year, the current president solicited $1 billion and got hundreds of millions of dollars from the oil and gas industry in the 2024 campaign while promising to roll back fossil fuel regulations in his effort to stamp out climate change policy.
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced last week it had expedited oil and gas production on public land in vehement opposition to environmental experts and activists.
Meanwhile, the Trump Energy Department in February signed-off on a Biden policy to permit the use of liquified natural gas as marine fuel in order to reduce LNG regulations targeting motor boats.
Kennedy, who reportedly received more than $300,000 in campaign contributions via the fossil fuel industry from 2021-2022, added that as part of the legislation was language that was included to create the “first-ever” National Center of Excellence for LNG Safety in Louisiana under PHMSA, which by 2013 had marked a record number of 116 enforcement orders against American pipeline operators for various safety violations by the federal regulator.
“The Center will advance LNG safety by promoting collaboration among government agencies, industry, academia, and other safety partners,” stated PHMSA’s Acting Administrator Ben Kochman.
“Consolidating such remarkable levels of expertise,” according to Kochman, will “benefit the LNG sector for many generations to come.”