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.
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.
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.
We need Nuclear too
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.
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.
I’m glad to know something positive is moving forward in a good way. Thank-you!
Golly. You mean to say our esteemed leaders and the deep state know nothing about business or industry? What a shock. Not.
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.
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 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!
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.
I heard this would have artificially lowered our gas prices before the election