With the Fund’s support, Sara Sneath was working on a series about fossil fuel influence in Louisiana universities when she received a tip about McNeese University’s Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Center of Excellence. Reporter Natalie McLendon, a McNeese graduate, also reached out to her with tips that the industry’s involvement in the center was unusual. Together, with a follow-up grant from the Fund, Sneath and McLendon obtained public records showing that LNG developer Tellurian asked the university’s president to support the company’s bid to build a gas export terminal near the school. The university’s president sent a letter of support ghostwritten by Tellurian to the federal regulator overseeing the construction. Sneath and McLendon also reported that Tellurian went on to become one of the top donors to the university’s LNG Center of Excellence – and that the university hired Tellurian’s lobbyist to head the center, at the company’s recommendation.
Grantees uncover how a public university courted the gas industry despite climate impacts
