WASHINGTON (CN) — President Joe Biden on Friday unilaterally paused approval for new liquefied natural gas export projects, a move applauded by climate activists and decried by Republican lawmakers.
Biden’s directive requires the Department of Energy to study the climate impact of new gas exports before approving any new projects.
“This pause on new LNG approvals sees the climate crisis for what it is: the existential threat of our time,” Biden said in a statement. “While MAGA Republicans willfully deny the urgency of the climate crisis, condemning the American people to a dangerous future, my Administration will not be complacent. We will not cede to special interests.”
The U.S. is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, which has helped Europe reduce its reliance on Russian exports. Domestic oil production has doubled over the past four years.
Friday’s action applies to projects awaiting approval and includes exceptions for “unanticipated and immediate national security emergencies.” It comes on the heels of a decision in the fall to approve three new oil and gas lease sales through 2029, which angered climate activists and Republicans alike.
Many liquified natural gas export facilities are in the Gulf Coast, including one in Louisiana known as Calcasieu Pass 2. Last year, Germany signed a deal to purchase about 2.21 million metric tons a year of gas over 20 years from the facility.
While some worried the pause would crater the U.S. energy sector, Ali Zaidi, Biden’s national climate adviser, said the projects already approved but not yet constructed are on track to double the nation’s production levels.
“There is a long runway here,” he said.
Rainforest Action Network applauded the move as a victory for the Gulf Coast that “foreshadows the end of the fossil fuel expansion era.”
“The White House is sending a very clear signal to Wall Street: the doomed methane export overbuild in the US Gulf is one of many bad investments in fossil fuel expansion,” the organization said in a statement. “The Gulf is not a sacrifice zone, and neither is the rest of the planet."
Senator Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said the move sends a message to fossil fuel producers.
“For too long, the United States served as an enabler for Big Oil and Big Gas’s get-rich-quick scheme, as it got countries around the world addicted to fossil fuels at the expense of American families,” Markey said in a statement. “I applaud the Biden administration for this much-needed move to protect American communities from export-driven pollution and profiteering.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, however, said Biden was only trying “to please radical climate activists in the Democrat Party,” and Representative Andy Biggs, an Arizona Republican, said it will undermine the energy sector.
“He has further declared war on American energy,” Biggs said of the president. “Expect your energy prices to soar and our adversaries to exploit this lapse.”
Senator Joe Manchin, chair of the Senate Energy Committee, pledged to investigate the pause, saying in a statement that the move was political and not based on “indisputable facts.”
“I have always said that our first concern must be protecting American consumers and growing American businesses, and we need a safety valve in place to ensure Americans aren’t unnecessarily stuck paying a premium for the abundant resources we’re blessed to have,” the West Virginia Democrat said. “But as the superpower of the world, we also have a responsibility to our allies and trading partners who, in our absence, may have no other choice but to turn to countries that don’t share our values.”
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