Trump energy officials rebrand fossil fuels as ‘molecules of freedom’

New terms, including ‘freedom gas’, have been the subject of widespread mockery

A press release from the US Department of Energy seemingly attempted to rebrand fossil fuels (iStock)

The US Department of Energy is now referring to fossil fuels as “molecules of freedom” and “freedom gas.”

An otherwise inconspicuous press release sent by the department on Tuesday revealed the attempted rebrand in a statement from two Trump-appointed officials.

In statements regarding the department’s “advance commitment to jobs, economic growth, clean energy,” Mark W. Menezes, the US under secretary of energy, and Steven Winberg, the assistant secretary for fossil energy introduced the new vocabulary.

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

Meanwhile, Mr Winberg’s statement read: “With the US 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 US freedom to be exported to the world.”

On Twitter, the new lingo was met with widespread criticism.

“This has to be a joke,” wrote Jay Inslee, the Washington governor running for the Democratic presidential nomination on a platform to address climate change head on: “(Remember freedom fries?)”

According to Time, term “freedom gas” may have originated from a European journalist from Euractiv. During a visit to Brussels in April, the reporter asked Rick Perry, the current US secretary of energy known for equating freedom with natural gas consumption in the past, if ‘freedom gas’ was an “accurate description.”

Mr Perry doubled down on his previous remarks, adding that the US is “again delivering a form of freedom” to Europe.

“And rather than in the form of young American soldiers,” he said, “it’s in the form of liquefied natural gas.”