New U.S. Energy Department Report Could Block Donald Trump from Expanding LNG Exports

The Biden administration released a report Tuesday that could make it harder for the next administration to expand U.S. natural gas exports, Politico reported.

While the Energy Department report stopped short of recommending a cap on U.S. exports, as environmental advocates have demanded, it did recommend that regulators take a tougher line in determining whether the country’s slew of gas permits are in the national interest or jeopardizing it.

The advice could give opponents of gas exports a new tool to challenge any new LNG terminals the energy industry is seeking to build under President-elect Donald Trump, and could give his critics new legal tools to stymie his desires.

Donald Trump has pledged to boost oil and gas production to achieve “energy dominance,” building on a surge that has pushed oil production to record levels this year and made the United States the world’s leading supplier of liquefied natural gas, and he has pledged to end the Biden administration’s one-year moratorium on issuing new export permits once he takes office.

But a year-long Biden administration report warns that plans to boost U.S. natural gas exports risk driving up domestic energy prices.

While the Trump administration is expected to ignore the Energy Department’s findings, environmental groups and consumer watchdogs said they will use its contents to bolster their legal challenges to any new project his administration approves.

The report says that unrestricted exports of liquefied natural gas would raise costs for the average American household by more than $100 a year by 2050, with much of that increase coming from higher domestic natural gas prices, higher costs for natural gas-fired electricity and higher costs for consumers from manufacturers.

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