The Trump administration has plumbed the depths of the English language from the presidents recent large turd obsession to an advisor who compared the demonization of carbon dioxide to the Holocaust to Ryan Zinke telling a protestor, Id like to see your child fight for energy (which weird flex but okay). Truly, these are all terrible and terribly stupid things to say.

But in the lexicon of the Trump administration, we now have the definitive word on what the worst phrase is. On Tuesday, the Plain English Foundation declared freedom gas the worst words of the year. The group bills itself as the authority in clear communication, and I have no reason to doubt this as their word choice is inspired.

The Department of Energy included that fateful phrase in a May 2019 press release about natural gas, attributing the phrase to Under Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes.

Increasing export capacity from the Freeport LNG project is critical to spreading freedom gas throughout the world by giving Americas allies a diverse and affordable source of clean energy, Menzes said before talking about molecules of freedom.

Honestly, molecules of freedom would be my choice for worst phrase of the year. It sounds like the name of a wretched, fascist tribute band of supergroup Atoms for Peace. But alas, Im just a humble blogger. Lets hear what Neil James, the executive director of the authority in clear communication, had this to say about their choice:

When a simple product like natural gas starts being named through partisan politics, we are entering dangerous terrain. Why cant natural gas just remain natural gas?

Too true, Neil. Too true.

This isnt even the administrations first flirtation with freedom fuels. Last year, then-Energy Secretary Rick Perry told CNBC that American fracked gas was the kind of freedom that is priceless. Mastercard, eat your heart out.

But while Trumps toilet riff is kinda funny (aside from having to think about our president taking a 15-flush dump), the attempt to rebrand natural gas as some kind of patriotic duty is an Orwellian nightmare. The U.S. has flooded the world with natural gas over the past decade or so thanks to advances in fracking. This is hardly liberating. Instead, its made the world more dependent on gas with many utilities infrastructure meant to last for decades.

Extracting and burning natural gas releases carbon dioxide and methane, a greenhouse gas thats way more potent than carbon dioxide (and which the Trump administration wants to deregulate). The more the world burns, the more it worsens the climate emergency. Again, not exactly freedom.

In fact, if were going to rebrand natural gas, how about make it unnatural gas for the world its creating. Or terror gas if we want to get a little spicier. You know, on second thought lets forget all about it and leave it in the ground.

Originally posted here:

It's Official: 'Freedom Gas' Is the Worst Phrase of the Year - Gizmodo