Tim Ryan unrecognizable. Former rep now hired gun for dangerous Big Oil and Gas

Ericka Copeland is the Ohio chapter director for the Sierra Club.

Most Ohioans would look at new policies that keep our energy bills affordable while strengthening our national security and curbing the climate crisis as a good thing. Unfortunately, former U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan now sees them as a threat to his own bottom line.

It was a few dozen months ago that Ryan sought — and failed — to become Ohio’s U.S. senator and, before that, U.S. president, claiming to stand up for average Ohioans who deserved better from our employers, our representatives, and our country. 

Unfortunately, in his retirement, Ryan has abandoned his populist brand and turned into a hired gun for one of the most powerful and dangerous special interests in our country: Big Oil and Gas.

Ryan has been all over the media attacking the Biden Administration’s common sense pause on new authorizations for gas export facilities – a basic step forward that will examine the impact of gas exports on our bills, health, and safety.

When you see Ryan making these attacks, it's important to know he’s now working as a paid spokesperson for a Washington, D.C.-based front group funded by some of the biggest gas companies in the country.

Tim Ryan:'Race against the clock.' Natural gas can break world’s addiction to coal.

Ryan’s new employers want you to believe that this new policy is apocalyptic. But the truth is that this common-sense evaluation is an important move to lower energy bills for Ohio families, reduce harmful pollution from fracking, and prevent U.S. gas from being used by our rivals to build more power around the globe. 

Why liquefied natural gas matters to Ohio

For better or worse, the U.S. is the world’s leader in liquefied natural gas exports – and that’s not stopping any time soon. But continuing the unlimited export of LNG overseas without updated research and analysis from independent researchers at the Department of Energy has a huge cost.

When we send gas from Ohio or anywhere else in the country abroad, it raises prices for our families here at home while creating pollution and health consequences through new fracking. Ohioans are projected to pay 11 percent more on their energy bills if the reckless LNG export buildout continues, according to Public Citizen.

Moreover, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis found U.S. consumers have paid over $100 billion more in just 16 months due to liquefied natural gas exports to overheated global markets. 

Why has Tim Ryan changed so drastically?

The truth is that greedy gas companies have turned gas exports into a national security risk. 

Instead of shipping gas to our allies in Europe who have now had their gas demand met following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, gas CEOs are fracking here at home and polluting our air and water to send gas overseas to our country’s biggest adversaries, like China.

That gives that country more control over the energy market and the U.S. less ability to respond to crises.

Meanwhile, as Ryan and his bosses fight this pause and ignore the impacts of liquefied natural gas exports on Ohioans, families near fracking sites and those near LNG export facilities are breathing poisoned air and seeing their livelihoods wiped out. 

Margaret Keen gave Ohio unspoiled land.28 years later, state allowing it to be violated

But the toll doesn’t stop there – new scientific analysis demonstrates that the buildout of LNG export facilities could be worse for the climate than previously reported. Data from Robert Howarth, a professor of ecology and environmental biology at Cornell, reveals that the entire ground-to-combustion lifecycle of LNG would be as dirty as burning coal – and in some cases worse. 

Not only are we continuing to extract dirty fossil fuels and exacerbating the climate crisis, but Ohioans are getting gouged on their bills for what’s being shipped away from our own state.

These are the facts you won’t hear from the well-paid spokespeople for Oil and Gas CEOs like Tim Ryan – but that’s why the President’s move is so prudent. It gives our country the opportunity to assess exactly the damage exports are doing and act accordingly.

More:Mike DeWine and climate Scrooges are pushing Ohio to environmental extinction

The pause on new LNG export authorizations may put a damper on the billions of dollars in profits of Tim Ryan’s bosses, but it’s good for Ohio families who are trying to make ends meet and keep their families safe and healthy.

Ericka Copeland is the Ohio chapter director for the Sierra Club.