U.S. industry groups asked Monday for a rehearing of the Department of Energy’s move to pause new liquefied natural gas export approvals, signaling that a lawsuit may be ahead.
In a filing with DOE, the American Petroleum Institute, Interstate Natural Gas Association of America and five other trade groups said the department’s freeze was implemented illegally without advance notice and an opportunity for comment.
filing with DOE
The associations said the decision, which was announced in January, undermines U.S. policy goals and is “extremely disruptive” to the domestic gas industry. The United States became the world’s largest exporter of LNG in 2023, outdoing Qatar and Australia.
It’s “critical to the success of U.S. innovation and dominance that the Federal Government maintains a transparent approval process with predictable timelines for LNG export projects,” the groups said in their filing.