Freedom’s just another word for…flammable?


At first, I thought it had to be some strange typo: the department of energy has started calling natural gas “freedom gas” made up of “molecules of U.S. freedom”. But no, apparently this is a trial balloon that has been flung about before.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry, a former Texas governor, has equated natural gas with “freedom” in the past. In January 2018, Perry told Fox Business that giving allies access to energy choices is a “priceless” kind of freedom.

“The United States is not just exporting energy, we’re exporting freedom,” Perry said.

One of the first people to have called the export “freedom gas” appears to have been a European journalist from the platform Euractiv. While the Perry was visiting Brussels in April, the journalist asked if “freedom gas” was an accurate description.

Perry agreed, saying that the U.S. is “again delivering a form of freedom” to Europe. “And rather than in the form of young American soldiers, it’s in the form of liquefied natural gas.”

The American people can’t possibly be as stupid as Rick Perry, can they?

I’m also wondering what they’ve been huffing down there in the department of energy.

Comments

  1. Akira MacKenzie says

    Ah yes, good old Freedom Gas to cook Fredom Fries, served with a glass of Victory Gin Freedom Beer!

  2. nomdeplume says

    “The American people can’t possibly be as stupid as Rick Perry, can they?” Well, combining this with “Project Blitz”, and an approval rating of 40+ for the dumbest man to lead any country ever, the answer clearly is yes. Have a feeling people will look back on the start of the 21st century as marking the beginning of the end of the American experiment in democracy.

  3. gijoel says

    The American people can’t possibly be as stupid as Rick Perry, can they?

    Not so much stupid as willfully ignorant.

  4. wzrd1 says

    @5 perhaps, using natural vermilion red for food coloring? With a side of lead oxide white for white food coloring?

  5. blf says

    From the Gruaniad’s report, US energy department rebrands fossil fuels as molecules of freedom: “Seventy-five years after liberating Europe from Nazi Germany occupation, the United States is again delivering a form of freedom to the European continent, the energy secretary [Rick Perry] said earlier this month, according to EURACTV.”

    For a bit of background here, the concern, which ignores the elephant in the roomon the planet of global heating, is Russia supplies c.40% of the gas consumed in the EU.

  6. Ed Seedhouse says

    Is what Trump releases from his asshole “natural” gas? Does Pence get high on breathing it in?

  7. says

    The Gulf War gave us “Freedom Fries” but it was all about Iraq’s oil. At least this time around there is a vague shred of honesty from the administration. The coming war with Iran is all about the gas.

  8. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    re @16
    freedom fries was snapping at the French for not supporting us invading Iraq.
    umm [reconsidering my remark] slapping the French was only the excuse, Big Oil was the reason. I agree with @16

  9. jrkrideau says

    @ 13 blf
    Russia supplies c.40% of the gas consumed in the EU.
    And much more cheaply than it can be supplied from the USA even if we ignore the need to build LNG handling port facilities.

    Frankly, given Trump’s mad flinging of sanctions around, Russia looks like a safer bet for security of supply. If you live in northern Germany you probably don’t want Trump cutting off the gas in January.

    As I understand it, the USSR supplied natural gas to Western Europe through much of the Cold War. Besides, Russia needs the income.

  10. says

    I would love to give Rick Perry a freshman college level quiz on thermodynamics. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know shit about energy. Seems like something your Secretary of Energy should know. I can honestly say I would be a better S-of-E than him. I at least studied ENGINEERING, not Animal Science. And I have one hell of a “gotchya” question.

    Mr. Perry, which source of fuel has both an HHV and a LHV, Diesel or gasoline. The correct answer, is a question, “By weight or, by volume?”.

    That’s the kind of knowledge we really need running that department.

  11. chrislawson says

    The American people can’t possibly be as stupid as Rick Perry, can they?

    People will make themselves exactly as stupid as they need to maintain their delusions of superiority.

  12. sirrod says

    Whenever I hear the word ‘freedom’ bandied about, it always puts me in mind of a Star Treck episode characters repeated exclamation—‘Freedom, Freedom, Kirk say sacred word’ !

  13. madtom1999 says

    And the bullets used to sell the stuff can be called Freedom Jelly Beans!

  14. Dunc says

    The American people can’t possibly be as stupid as Rick Perry, can they?

    Well, the people of Texas were stupid enough to elect him as governor three times…

  15. blf says

    But Texas — or at least much of it — acts like it not part of Earth, and possibly isn’t even from a universe with the same laws of physics.

  16. johnson catman says

    There is no need for “The Onion” anymore. This administration has so far eclipsed anything that would have been laughed at uncontrollably if published there a few years ago.

  17. blf says

    Recently in The Onion, Glowing, Cackling McConnell Levitates Above Senate After Realizing Chamber’s Rules Only Self-Imposed Mental Construct. Also, Report: Massive Hypocrisy Just Flat-Out Gets The Job Done:

    Revealing that bald-faced lies and shameless double standards are the most reliable way to outmaneuver one’s opponents, a report released Wednesday confirmed that massive hypocrisy just flat-out gets the job done. “Changing your stance based on temporary expediency has proven time and again to be a slam dunk in terms of advancing an agenda,” read the report, which went on to state that there are no major downsides to doing one thing one year and doing the exact opposite the next because the majority of people do not remember anything that happens in the world for more than a week or so. […]

    And Corner Store Customers Saddened By Sight Of Frantic Trump Doing Scratch-Off Tickets Right On Counter:

    Watching as the president of the United States checked each of his pockets in search of enough change to keep playing, customers at a DC convenience store were reportedly saddened Friday to see Donald Trump frantically doing scratch-off tickets right there on the counter. “A lot of hard-up folks come in for the lotto, but this guy’s here at least a couple times a day — whenever he can scrape together the cash for another ticket, I guess,” said store clerk Draymond Finch, who looked on as the commander in chief ineffectually clawed at a scratch-off with a dirty fingernail before handing it back and asking Finch to tell him if he had won or not. […] At press time, sources confirmed president Trump had accused Finch of deliberately selling him losing tickets and was angrily demanding a refund.

  18. bcwebb says

    I’m confused, I though “Freedom Gas” was a euphemism for farting in public?