By Nina McCambridge
On Jan. 26, the Biden administration put a temporary pause on liquified natural gas exports. (The pause does not apply to Free Trade Agreement partner countries.) The White House justified this by saying that “we have an evolving understanding of the market need for LNG [liquified natural gas], the long-term supply of LNG, and the perilous impacts of methane on our planet.” Therefore, the Biden administration will only approve LNG exports after the Department of Energy re-analyses natural gas. The Natural Gas Act of 1938 gave the federal government its current authority to regulate the natural gas industry: Anyone importing or exporting natural gas must receive permission from the federal government. The original intent of this act was not environmental but anti-monopolistic.
Natural gas is a fossil fuel that is mostly composed of methane. It is considered to be a cleaner energy source than many common alternatives like coal, but not fully clean like nuclear energy. In the U.S., it has increasingly replaced coal. After Texas, Pennsylvania is the second-largest producer of natural gas in the country. Liquified natural gas is natural gas that is stored at a low temperature so that it is no longer gas. This makes it easier to transport without pipelines. The U.S. transports natural gas internally and to Canada and Mexico using pipelines, but in order to ship natural gas overseas, it is liquefied.
According to the White House, “The U.S. is already the number one exporter of LNG worldwide — with U.S. LNG exports expected to double by the end of this decade.” Russia is the world’s top natural gas exporter. The U.S. may want to stabilize natural gas exports, especially after the natural gas pipeline dispute between the EU and Russia over the invasion of Ukraine. At first, this led to high energy prices. Then the EU increased its importation of liquified natural gas, especially from the U.S. and Norway. If the U.S. is no longer a reliable source of natural gas, the EU might turn to Russia though the White House promises that “through existing LNG production and export infrastructure, the U.S. has — and will continue — to deliver for our allies.” Even before the Russia-Ukraine War, Europe was increasingly using liquified natural gas, which they had to build infrastructure for in order to accept.
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