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Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy of Alaska has ordered state lawmakers to attend special legislative sessions over the summer and pass lucrative tax breaks for Alaska LNG, a proposed massive fossil gas export terminal on the Cook Inlet with an 800-mile pipeline across pristine wildlife preserves and much of the state.

With plans to export liquified “natural gas,” or LNG, to Asia, the fossil fuel megaproject is a top priority for President Donald Trump that Dunleavy is rushing to greenlight before his final term ends in December. Alaska LNG would accelerate the thawing of Arctic permafrost — potentially crossing a dangerous tipping point leading to a full-scale climate crisis — and threaten subsistence hunting and fishing grounds belonging to Arctic Indigenous communities.

For Iñupiat subsistence hunters who rely on animals such as moose and caribou to survive, disruptions to migratory routes from fossil fuel projects can be devastating. Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, former mayor of Nuiqsut and founder of Grandmothers Growing Goodness, said people in her tribal fishing village on the Colville River are also dealing with toxic industrial accidents and breathing problems from air pollution released by existing fossil fuel infrastructure on Alaska’s North Slope.

“This gas project can’t go through,” Ahtuangaruak told Truthout in an interview. “We should not be doing this just so some people can line their pockets today without thinking about tomorrow.”

With estimated costs currently up to $54.5 billion, some state lawmakers are also weighing whether Alaska LNG is bad economics. Trump, Dunleavy, and Glenfarne Group, the developer behind the project, are relying on lucrative state and federal subsidies to attract investors and political support. The climate activists at Friends of the Earth call the proposal “corrupt” and a “carbon bomb.”

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Lois Parshley, a climate researcher at Public Citizen and co-author of a new report on the growing costs of the rush to export fracked gas as LNG, said the actual costs of building and operating Alaska LNG are likely much higher than the nearly $55 billion estimate provided by Glenfarne Group. The average cost overrun of operating LNG terminals in North America has been 59.7 percent, according to the report.

“The financial hazards in the LNG sector aren’t anomalies, they’re built into the business model,” Parshley said in email.

With the rise of renewable energy and future revenue dependent on global markets,........

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