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(Bloomberg) — The Biden administration is set to unveil plans within days for intensifying environmental scrutiny of applications to export natural gas, igniting a flurry of lobbying by industry champions worried it will slow the push to ship more of the fuel abroad.
The administration’s approach could be announced as soon as the end of this week, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because there’s been no public announcement. White House officials have spent weeks deliberating over the issue — including how aggressive to get — as they navigate competing environmental, economic and political concerns tied to tens of billions of dollars in US gas trade.
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A White House spokesman did not immediately comment.
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Any significant changes to how the Energy Department reviews licenses to widely ship liquefied natural gas threaten to disrupt development of huge LNG terminals along the Gulf Coast and elsewhere, curbing US export potential. US law already requires the government to weigh whether exports are in the public interest. But officials have mulled ways to beef up that review, diving more deeply into the impacts the projects will have on climate change.
The US is already the world’s largest LNG exporter, but environmentalists argue more approvals will drive a bigger expansion — and unleash more planet-warming pollution. Climate activists, including Bill McKibben, are stepping up pressure to stem the construction of new multibillion dollar LNG export terminals opponents say will prolong the world’s reliance on natural gas while discouraging cleaner alternatives. Activists are staging a Feb. 6-8 sit-in at the Energy Department to demand it halt new LNG approvals.
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Environmentalists and administration officials who have urged a tougher approach say it’s time to recalibrate, with dozens of companies already holding licenses to export American natural gas to European and Asian countries that do not have free-trade agreements with the US. The Energy Department made clear last year it will not extend existing non-FTA licenses beyond an initial seven years for companies that haven’t begun building export facilities.
More than a dozen license applications are now awaiting review at the Energy Department, though only one — Commonwealth LNG — has cleared a separate required FERC approval process. Commonwealth’s application has been pending for more than a year.
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LNG supporters are mounting a last-minute lobbying blitz, trying to head off big changes and delays they say threaten to stall final investment decisions and kill some planned ventures altogether. They are emphasizing the climate benefits of using American natural gas to displace dirtier-burning coal in power plants worldwide. And they argue any pause in LNG export approvals would be an affront to European allies that relied on US natural gas to help displace Russian supplies after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
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“We want to shed light on how damaging this could be to our allies, particularly those in Europe who are desperate for American natural gas,” Mike Sommers, head of the American Petroleum Institute, said at a Washington energy summit Tuesday.
Industry supporters have been encouraging European officials to be more vocal in raising concerns with the White House and State Department.
Andreas Kaiser, a government counselor at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, was part of a delegation that visited Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG plant in Louisiana earlier this week, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly.
—With assistance from Ari Natter.
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