WASHINGTON — The United States must tread carefully as officials consider new natural gas export terminals, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Tuesday, warning the new Trump administration that “unfettered exports” of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, could drive up domestic prices and increase greenhouse gas emissions.
Granholm’s statement came as the Energy Department released a report long-awaited study on the environmental and economic consequences of natural gas exportswhich have grown exponentially over the past decade. The analysis found that U.S. LNG shipments drive up domestic wholesale prices and often crowd out renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.
Increased LNG exports would also lead to higher global greenhouse gas emissions, even using newly developed equipment to capture and store carbon emissions, the report said.
“Unfettered LNG exports would increase domestic wholesale natural gas prices by more than 30%,” costing U.S. households an additional $100 a year by 2050, Granholm said.
“We have recently experienced the real ripple effects of higher energy prices at home and abroad since the (COVID-19) pandemic,” she said, adding that an “export-driven price increase” would make it harder for some families to meet. basic needs.
“Today’s publication underlines that a business-as-usual approach (to LNG exports) is neither sustainable nor advisable,” Granholm said.
The Energy Department’s report comes after the The Biden administration has halted approvals of new LNG projects in January to study the effects of LNG exports on the planet. Natural gas emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas, when burned, leaked or released.
The oil and gas industry, along with Republican allies in Congress, have labeled the LNG pause as unnecessary and counterproductive. Donald Trumphas promised to end the break on his first day on the job. The break is on hold below a federal court orderbut the Energy Department recently said it won’t decide on two major LNG export projects in Louisiana until it becomes independent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission completes environmental assessments.
The study could hamper Trump’s plans to immediately greenlight LNG export projects. Trump said last week that anyone who has a Investment of $1 billion in the United States “will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all environmental approvals.”
Environmentalists have said they will use the DOE analysis in lawsuits expected over any approvals of LNG projects by the Trump administration. Activists are labeling the multi-billion dollar export terminals as “climate bombs.”
LNG is especially energy intensive because the gas must be extracted through underground drilling and then piped to export terminals along the East Coast and Gulf Coast. The gas is then “super-cooled” into a liquid that is taken by tankers to import terminals in Europe and Asia, where it is then heated into gas and distributed for business and household use.
The American Gas Association called the Biden administration’s pause a mistake that has resulted in uncertainty for the global market, investors and America’s allies around the world.
“This report is a clear and inexplicable attempt to justify their serious policy error,” said AGA President and CEO Karen Harbert. “America’s allies are suffering from natural gas weaponization and energy shortages, and any restriction on the supply of essential life energy is absolutely wrong.”
Harbert said the industry group looks forward to working with the Trump administration “to correct the glaring problems with this investigation during the public comment period,” which lasts until mid-February.
Charlie Riedl, executive director of the Center for LNG, a pro-industry group, said Republican and Democratic administrations, as well as independent researchers, “have consistently found that U.S. LNG exports deliver economic, national security and climate benefits and serve the public interest . .”
American LNG “remains an essential tool for countries looking to displace dirtier fuels like coal and reduce their emissions,” Riedl said, adding that U.S. LNG exports play a key role in meeting growing global demand for natural gas. American gas shipments to Europe and Asia have increased enormously since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The LNG pause announced by the president Joe Biden As the 2024 election year begins, the Democratic administration has joined environmentalists who fear that the massive increase in LNG exports in recent years is setting off potentially catastrophic planet-warming emissions, at a time when Biden pledged to cut U.S. climate pollution in half by 2030.
“While MAGA Republicans willfully deny the urgency of the climate crisis and condemn the American people to a dangerous future, my administration will not be complacent,” Biden said in announcing the pause. His actions “answer the calls of young people and communities on the front lines who are using their voices to demand climate action,” Biden added.
Environmental groups applauded the DOE investigation, saying it found clear evidence of LNG’s dangers to the climate, economy, national security and public health.
“This study confirms that Donald Trump’s plans to boost LNG exports will come at the expense of consumers and the climate,” said Raena Garcia, senior energy campaigner at Friends of the Earth. “We cannot afford to support an industry that continues to threaten the economy. our people and the planet for profit.”
Exporting frack gas “exacerbates climate change, harms wildlife and increases prices for American consumers,” said Lauren Parker, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, another environmental group. “If Trump wants to increase dangerous gas exports, he will have to answer for causing even more deadly storms, condemning the rice whale to extinction and burdening consumers with higher costs.”
Parker’s comment refers to one endangered whale species in the Gulf of Mexico. Environmentalists say offshore drilling for oil and gas threatens the species’ habitat.
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