When President Joe Biden announced his temporary pause on liquid natural gas (LNG) exports in January, he said it “sees the climate crisis for what it is: the existential threat of our time.”
A federal judge put a stop to the ban six months later.
“[The] Defendants’ action were outside the scope of their authority and rooted in politics and Defendants’ climate change policies,” wrote U.S. District Judge James D. Cain Jr. last week as he issued a preliminary injunction.
Cain said the 15 state attorneys general who sued the administration were justified in their actions because the country’s LNG market is expected to boost gross domestic product by $46 billion by 2030. He noted the Department of Energy last year rejected a request to end LNG exports.
“There never seemed to be a good reason for the pause in the first place, and it looks like the courts couldn’t find one either,” Philip Rossetti with R Street Institute told InsideSources.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) argued the pause never made much sense because it ceded America’s energy advantage to foreign nations and threatened thousands of jobs.
Natural gas production has helped pace the American economy. U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) statistics show American companies exported more LNG than any other country last year.
Global politics played a major factor in America’s jump to the top.
The European Union turned to the U.S. for LNG following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. American LNG exports to Europe shot up 115 percent shortly after the war started.
Last year, the U.S. sent 66 percent of its LNG shipments to gas-hungry European nations like France, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
That’s changed since Biden’s LNG export pause was announced.
Gas and oil analytics company ICIS reported Russia took over as Europe’s biggest supplier of natural gas in May. It initially said so-called “one-off” factors caused Russian gas imports to eclipse U.S. imports by one percent.
Yet, the EU remained reliant on Russian LNG versus American LNG last month, according to ICIS. While the volume difference was .24 billion cubic meters, the numbers troubled energy analysts.
“If we put a pause in the permitting, that tells [the EU and Asia] this natural gas from America may not be available in the future,” Trisha Curtis, CEO of energy consultant Petronerds, told InsideSources.
New sanctions announced last month did not include the LNG import ban supported by Sweden and Baltic countries. The lone holdout was Germany, which relies heavily on Russian LNG. Instead, the sanctions said Russian LNG couldn’t be imported and then sent to another country.
American LNG will continue to flow to the EU in the short term. But few contracts go beyond 2030 despite the EU’s top energy official saying last year there “will be a need for American energy.” Some of that has been credited to the EU’s ambitious climate goals.
Why did Biden hit the pause button on LNG exports? November politics.
The White House met with environmentalists in the months leading up to the executive order. One influencer warned that voters would “reward or punish” the president for the export ban.
Curtis scoffed at the idea that Biden could win the election by catering to 20-something-year-old environmentalists. She said the “environmental stuff means nothing” because carbon emissions dropped 36 percent from 2005 through 2021 in the U.S. That drop was credited to the switch from coal to natural gas.
When asked why the administration enacted the pause despite science showing that natural gas is good for the environment, Curtis said it was because policymakers don’t understand how energy works.
“They’re putting greenwashing ahead of humankind, truthfully.”
Reprinted with permission from DC Journal by Taylor Millard.
Rulings like this are the REAL reason why Biden and the democrats want to “reform” the judiciary and the Supreme Court in particular. They don’t want an independent, co-equal branch of government. They actually want a judiciary comprised of liberal, activist judges who will act like another part of the legislative branch of government who will rubber stamp everything they do regardless of the rule of law and/or the constitution.
Just another move by the little dictator to destroy our Country. Soon he will be out.
The democrats blatant agenda to destroy this country becomes more and more obvious every day. I don’t know where the Liberals think they’re going to live when this country is destroyed. They will have no further purpose. Hitler murdered all the people that put him in the office. That is what awaits them. When Donald Trump gets elected which he will, he’ll put a stop to all this. But first he has to survive till the election. They will try again.
The whole point of this administration is to weaken and destroy our once great republic. Sleepy crooked Joe is on his way out but not with some destruction in his wake. God bless DJT 45 & soon to be 47.
We need Nuclear too
Communists know they can not take over a strong America. That is why everything they do weakens us as a nation. It is by desire and design that they do everything they can to bring the country down. Only then will they be able to seize control permanently.
Golly. You mean to say our esteemed leaders and the deep state know nothing about business or industry? What a shock. Not.
Thank God. LNG is a great, clean and abundant fuel that we need to produce as much of as possible to help the environment!
This natural gas is so clean, and also plentiful, I agree it will advance our gross domestic product to the greatest degree. Why Biden took this position, is obvious. His supporters who travel by jet and live in huge luxury homes, by the way on the beaches, are telling him what to do.
I’m glad to know something positive is moving forward in a good way. Thank-you!
From now on I just wish story writers would use the phrase “Biden’s handlers . . .” We all know that Biden himself is incapable of cogent thought.
This is what you get when your pRESIDENT works for Xi Jinping. Whoever’s actually controlling the pedophile-in-chief is getting what they paid for in this stolen election!
And just who is destroying democracy? Once again it turns out to be Dementia Joe, President of the United States, or at least whoever it is that puts words in his mouth, or tells him where to sign the document written for him.
Anything for the climate change fanatics. They forget you can’t turn off the switch of one utility without having something else in its place. Ole Joe allowed with the moratorium for Russia to become rich to pay for the war in the Ukraine. We Americans are providing the funds for both sides. Thanks Joe. The citizens of these countries are paying thousands of euros to heat their homes. Like here, anything to make the middle class poor and become zombies to follow ole Klaus Schwab and the WEF like ole Joe and the deep state.
If it weakens the country the treason party is for it. Its just that simple. These are the same people who refused to ban non citizens from voting.
The last paragraph and last sentence together say all that’s needed. Policymakers don;t understand how energy works. That includes the fact LNG is likely the cleanest of fossil fuels. To me, it’s more about control and using environmental “greenwashing” to do it and make citizenship more dependent on gov’t which the Dems agenda is to be in control of from now on.
This Godless demoncRATic defrauding has to STOP! Thank God for this Judge w common Constitutional Republic sense!!!!!!!
I heard this would have artificially lowered our gas prices before the election
I am never startled or surprised anymore to see Bden and his Marxist Democrat Leaders breaking Consitutional Law, State Laws, Local Laws, Federal Laws. They clearly believe they are above all the rest of us hard working Americans and are willing to create havoc for us in order to get votes from their foolish constituents. Divide and Conquer is their standby.
More proof thay Biden Admin has not one clue what they are doing They just cater to failing leftist causes with no reason or truth.
Typical climate activist spin on the environment. The conversation always includes statements about how the rest of us don’t understand.
I’ve no doubt gas prices will “coincidently” get more affirdable the closer it gets to November…
So happy to see common sense returning to the courts
I am so sick and tired of the brain dead lying scumbag doing stuff like this. There is NO MAN MADE global warming. CO2 does not cause warming. These people are more just as brain dead as bite me but at least now he has an excuse. What is theirs?
Hooray the truth about BAD LEADERSHIP and BAD ADMINISTRATIVE DECISIONS IS FACTUAL AND REVEALED ! More hidden truths will be revealed I have forever thought the POTUS WEARS A BLUETOOTH TELEPROMPTER . COGNITION IS IMPAIRED. EXAMPLES planned very DISASTEROUS Afghanistan Crisis situation BLATANT FAILURE , does not acknowledge severity of BUDENFLATION, unaware, DENIAL of our sick economy and he is contributing and ABETTING crippled WH and crippled CONGRESS DENIAL NEEDS TO BE ABOLISHED! TRUTH IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT WAKE UP America CULTIVATE INSIGHT
L
Buyden$ corrupt satanic democracy cult have destroyed our national energy industry and supply, believe me I am a victim of it!
Joe is having a real bad week.
Another example of the ocean of nothing that exists between Bidens two ears. Lets get this straight, we, meaning us, as in US along with possibly our obedient chihuahua known as Great Britain, blow up and destroy Europe’s access to inexpensive and reliable natural gas via the Nordstream Pipelines (and c’mon if you don’t think we did it then you are most likely in a waiting line for an Adams Apple implant along with Rachel Maddow), requiring western Europe (the short bus riding portion of Europe), to purchase very expensive LNG from the US via shipment by boat. Then to really show western Europe how much you want to return their people to living standards equivalent to pre historic times, you decide to prohibit exports of said LNG.
To show how incredibly stupid and how enslaved the globalists that rule all but two countries in western Europe are, those leaders in full herd mode blindly follow their masters (Uncle Sam), demand to walk off the cliff of any semblance of prosperity. Prosperity hell, the folks in western Europe have gone from being an industrial powerhouse though mostly centered around Germany, to a bankrupt gathering of cattle slowly starving to death and in a couple of months those hunger pangs will be replaced by “the shivers”, brought on by seasonal cold temperatures and the lack of being able to purchase utilities to keep the cold at bay. Perhaps when the bodies start stacking up in the street like trash during a garbage workers strike, the people will finally stand up and Mussolini their leaders responsible for their predicament. Nothing would be sweeter than seeing the likes of Ursula, purple tongue protruding, hanging from a lamp post in Brussels.
God bless America…………right?
Probably only 10% of people drive electric cars or trucks , and I don’t trust them
it’s always been about communist interference in America.
The left’s creation and usage of false crises like “climate change” serves only one purpose. Control.
Looks like common sense does count even in this present situation.
CO2 is not the problem. Democrats and the New Green Deal are the problem along with the WEF and their minions. It is about controlling every aspect of our lives and nothing to do with the climate or the environment.
Hopefully, his sidekick VP will NOT win or we will be stuck with a permanent down slide and the end of the free United States of America. We need to get rid of the “Elite” class of democrats, Obama, Pelosi, Schumer, Jefferies, and several others, including the “Squad”, all part of the “Deep State”. Along with them, HOLLYWOOD ACTORS??? George Clooney??? Julia Roberts??? Rob Reiner??? Michael Moore??? and many others who Obama particularly is enamored with, WERE NOT ELECTED by the American people, so who are they to think they have power??? But, they do. They do because Obama is running the show and is forcing the party to do what these imbeciles tell them what to do. This is all illegal. The Democrats will do anything to stay in power, at the expense of the American people.
There is a process from Canada that converts LNG to regular grade gasoline. Why is it not used here and what ever happened to it?