Thanks to our consultant, Talia Calnek-Sugin, for her work on this advocacy.
Read our memo here
Historically, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has essentially rubber-stamped applications to export liquefied natural gas, or LNG. By law, DOE must evaluate whether approving more LNG exports to non-FTA countries is consistent with the American public interest, but its permission has essentially been a foregone conclusion. This changed in January, when the Biden Administration announced that it would pause approvals of new LNG export applications while it updates the underlying environmental and economic analysis it uses to determine whether exports are in the public interest. The agency is taking time to reevaluate the considerations underpinning its cost-benefit analysis of new export terminals.
LNG exports have considerable downsides. As an initial matter, exporting LNG is…