Remove climate considerations from natural gas export approvals
What the document says“Eliminate political and climate-change interference in DOE approvals of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.”
The chapter also asks Congress to reform the Natural Gas Act so that required approvals extend beyond nations with free trade agreements to all American allies. It says in the same passage that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is an economic regulator and should not make itself a climate regulator.
What the document actually says“Eliminate political and climate-change interference in DOE approvals of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.”
Take politics and climate out of these decisions. They are about sending gas abroad.
Gas can be cooled into liquid and shipped. The government must approve each sale abroad. The book says climate should not be part of that call.
Unleashing American Energy
2025-01-20 · 90 FR 8353
Executive Order 14154, signed January 20, 2025, directs the Secretary of Energy to restart reviews of liquefied natural gas export applications as expeditiously as possible and, in weighing the public interest, to consider economic and employment impacts and the effect on the security of allies and partners. A separate section disbands the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases, withdraws its estimates and guidance, and tells agencies in permitting and regulatory processes to adhere only to legislated environmental requirements. That removes a climate input from federal decisions and adds factors that favor approval. It stops short of the proposal in that the order never states that climate effects are excluded from the public interest test itself, and it does not carry out the chapter's separate request that Congress extend automatic approval beyond free trade agreement countries.
The order restarts reviews of gas export bids. Jobs and allies are to be weighed. It also shuts a work group on the cost of greenhouse gas and pulls its guidance. That drops a climate input and adds factors that favor approval. But the order never says climate harm is ruled out of the test. And quick approval is not extended to more countries, which takes Congress.