The Biden administration cannot delay the review of projects aimed at Export of liquefied natural gas while a lawsuit brought by 16 Republican-led states is being heard in federal court, a judge in Louisiana said Monday.
U.S. District Judge James Cain Jr. sided with the states and issued a temporary restraining order halting the Biden administration’s delay.
However, it was unlikely that any of the projects would be reviewed under the fast-track procedure, as the U.S. Department of Energy said late Monday that it disagreed with the court’s ruling and was currently considering its next steps. The White House also expressed disappointment.
“We remain committed to making our decisions based on the best available economic and environmental analyses, backed by sound scientific research,” White House spokesman Angelo Fernández Hernández said in an email to The Associated Press.
President Joe Biden decided in January his government would delay the review new natural gas export terminals in the U.S., even as gas supplies to Europe and Asia surged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The move puts the Democrat on the side of environmentalists who fear that a surge in exports – in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG) – brings with it potentially catastrophic, planet-warming emissions.
A coalition of states, including Louisiana, Alaska, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming, filed suit in March, claiming that the government’s ban on liquefied natural gas exports to countries without free trade agreements violates the U.S. Constitution and other federal laws.
Cain said the states are likely to succeed in their preliminary blocking of the Biden ban on new permits. He cited evidence presented by the plaintiffs showing that there had been lost revenue and deferred investment in LNG projects due to the Biden administration’s actions.
The ruling comes just days after a federal commission examined the nationwide largest export terminal for liquefied natural gasVenture Global’s Calcasieu Pass 2 project in southwest Louisiana, often referred to as CP2, was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week without much discussion.
The project still needs to be approved by the Ministry of Energy. The authority has announced that the application for the project is still pending.
Republican members of Congress from Louisiana to Alaska derided the administration’s pause as shortsighted and a boon to foreign energy-producing adversaries, including Iran and RussiaOther supporters argue that projects like CP2 will be critical to global energy security.
Among those criticizing Cain’s ruling was the environmental group Evergreen Action, which claimed the judge was “bending the law to give the oil industry a victory.”
“Pause or not, the science is clear: No sound analysis that takes into account the climate and environmental damage caused by LNG exports can conclude that these deadly facilities are in the public interest,” said Craig Segall, vice president of the group.
According to the Energy Department, current permits to export LNG to countries that do not have a free trade agreement are over 48 billion cubic feet per day, or more than 45% of our current domestic natural gas production. The agency also said that based on current export capacity, the U.S. will remain the largest LNG exporter by a wide margin for at least the next six years.