trending Market Intelligence /marketintelligence/en/news-insights/trending/GuqI4ernb6JA6mi61QGLBg2 content esgSubNav
In This List

Republican congressman wants DOE out of regulatory process for LNG exports

Podcast

Next in Tech | Episode 49: Carbon reduction in cloud

Blog

Using ESG Analysis to Support a Sustainable Future

Research

US utility commissioners: Who they are and how they impact regulation

Blog

Q&A: Datacenters: Energy Hogs or Sustainability Helpers?


Republican congressman wants DOE out of regulatory process for LNG exports

A Republican congressman from Ohio has introduced legislation to give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authority to issue LNG export licenses, removing the U.S. Department of Energy from the federal process of approving overseas shipments of the fuel.

Under proposed legislation from Rep. Bill Johnson and co-sponsored by Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, FERC would be able to clear developers to export LNG to countries with which the U.S. does not have a free trade agreement following the commission's environmental review of the liquefaction and export terminal. The Energy Department currently has the final say on additional LNG exports and has made a practice of waiting until FERC issues an order clearing construction and operation of the facility before issuing non-FTA licenses, a lag the industry has said makes potential buyers uneasy.

"The U.S. is currently the world's largest producer of natural gas, with trillions of cubic feet of recoverable natural gas beneath our feet," Johnson said in a Dec. 11 news release. "We should be doing all we can to take advantage of this abundant resource, and it is my hope that these bills will help further that goal."

Roughly a dozen U.S. LNG export projects are seeking approval from FERC and the DOE, vying to join Cheniere Energy Inc.'s operational Sabine Pass LNG facility and the five other terminals under construction.

Since President Donald Trump took office, Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana have both introduced bills that would streamline the DOE's process for granting export orders by deeming shipments to non-FTA countries to be in the public interest. Past legislative efforts to speed up the process have failed in Congress despite receiving bipartisan support.

The DOE said in an Oct. 24 report signed by Energy Secretary Rick Perry that it will consider speeding up its approval process for large volumes of LNG to non-FTA countries as part of Trump's March executive order that required agencies to review existing regulations for ways they might "burden" the development and use of domestic energy resources.

A separate bill introduced by Johnson would codify the DOE's recent effort to automatically approve the export of small-scale volumes of LNG, which proponents say would allow for increased shipments to the Caribbean, Central America and South America.