The “freedom gas” phrase coined by a U.S. Under Secretary of Energy earlier this year, has won the award for worst phrase from the Australian Plain English Foundation. “When a simple product like natural gas starts being named through partisan politics, we are entering dangerous terrain,” the Australian Plain English Foundation’s Executive Director, Dr Neil James, said commenting on the award. “Why can’t natural gas just remain natural gas?” The simple answer to this would be that a commodity as strategic as natural gas will always be wrapped in politics and hence impossible to just remain natural gas. The phrase appeared in a May 2019 press release from the U.S. Department of Energy announcing its approval for additional export capacity at the Freeport LNG facility in Texas. “Increasing export capacity from the Freeport LNG project is critical to spreading freedom gas throughout the world by giving America’s allies a […]