This story was updated at 5:52 p.m. EST.
The Department of Energy has released the assessment at the heart of its contentious pause on liquefied natural gas export approvals, finding that “unfettered” shipments of the fuel would make domestic prices rise.
DOE issued the analysis — which examines the economic, environmental and national security implications of LNG shipments to the majority of the world — about a month before the start of the second Trump administration and more than 10 months after the pause was announced.
“A business-as-usual approach is neither sustainable nor advisable,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said during a call with reporters Tuesday.
To accompany the final study, Granholm issued a three-page statement that highlighted the “truly astounding” growth of U.S. LNG exports in recent years, as well as the effects of projects on communities already dealing with existing projects and the environmental consequences of those shipments.
The “study put forward today shows a world in which additional U.S. LNG exports displace more renewables than coal globally,” Granholm said in the statement.
DOE announced a 60-day comment period on the analysis. But President-elect Donald Trump is all but certain to make DOE’s halt a distant memory as his incoming administration prioritizes export authorizations. Trump will be sworn into office on Jan. 20.
On today’s call with reporters, a senior DOE official said U.S. LNG has “proven critical” for U.S. allies in Europe in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 but added that Europe has very strong climate goals and it’s expected that Europe’s demand for LNG will go down significantly. Yet, LNG demand is expected to go up in China, DOE said.
The agency has already submitted the final study to the Federal Register, DOE said.
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana overturned the pause in July. Still, over Labor Day weekend, the Biden administration granted a non-free-trade-agreement authorization to an LNG project in eastern Mexico that exports U.S.-sourced gas. Observers, however, considered that to be an exception to the pause.
Even before President Joe Biden officially unveiled the pause in late January, the oil and gas industry decried the reported move as an election-year gambit and said it would stifle investment in the sector.
The White House announced the initial pause decision in late January. The stated purpose was to update the environmental, economic and national security analyses that underpin DOE approvals, the Biden administration said, considering how much the gas export landscape has evolved since the United States began exporting LNG from the lower 48 states in early 2016.
The release Tuesday prompted an immediate outcry from fossil fuel groups.
“Any limitations on supplying life essential energy is absolutely wrong-headed,” Karen Harbert, president of the American Gas Association, said in a statement. “We look forward to working with the incoming administration to rectify the glaring issues with this study during the public comment period.”
Harbert said the LNG “potential for lowering global emissions is unquestioned.”
On Monday, talks fell apart on Capitol Hill over legislation to speed up infrastructure permitting in the U.S. The bill could have quickened regulatory decisions on LNG projects.
