WASHINGTON (CN) — House Republicans on Thursday took a step towards lifting a pause on exports of domestic liquefied natural gas, approving legislation that would hand such authority to an independent federal regulator.
GOP lawmakers have been up in arms since the Biden administration announced in January that it would put a pin in some new approvals for liquefied natural gas, or LNG, export projects until the Department of Energy completes a study on the climate impacts of such activity.
While climate activists and Democrats hailed the move as an effort to hold U.S. oil and natural gas companies accountable for pollution, Republicans have argued the pause will damage the U.S. natural gas industry and will result in energy price hikes for consumers.
Republicans’ response to the White House policy arrived Thursday, as the House voted 224-199 to pass a bill that, if made law, would strip the Department of Energy of its authority to approve new LNG export projects entirely.
The measure, sponsored by Texas Representative August Pfluger, would put approval power solely in the hands of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a federal agency independent from the Energy Department.
The bill would also amend federal law to clarify that imports and exports of natural gas are in the public interest.
During floor debate Thursday, Pfluger argued that of all the White House’s energy policies the pause on LNG exports — which he and other lawmakers have referred to as a ban — was “the most egregious, shortsighted and impactful on the credit of U.S. commitments around the world.”
Pfluger, whose district in West Texas includes parts of the gas-producing Permian Basin, argued that U.S. natural gas producers have been instrumental in propping up European and Asian energy markets and that putting a cork in LNG exports will force countries to “turn to nefarious actors” for energy needs.
Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state, who chairs the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, pointed to estimates that she said suggest natural gas exports could generate as much as $73 billion for the U.S. economy and add hundreds of thousands of jobs by midcentury.
President Joe Biden’s pause on exports, she said, is “the latest example of his administration caving to environmental activists and putting politics over the American people,” adding that the move will harm the economy and weaken domestic energy security.
Michigan Representative Tim Walberg said Pfluger’s legislation would take power away from “the political whims of the White House and DOE.”
Democrats, however, accused their Republican colleagues of misrepresenting the Biden administration’s action.
New Jersey Representative Frank Pallone, ranking member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, said Republicans framing the pause as a ban on LNG exports are “peddling in blatant disinformation.”
The lawmaker pointed out the White House policy does not affect current exports of natural gas or sites currently under construction — only future projects.
“If the Department of Energy never approved another permit, our LNG exports are still on track to triple from now until the end of the decade,” Pallone argued.
The congressman called the proposed bill’s public interest determination “utterly absurd,” calling it a “gift to Big Oil and Gas” and contending that there is widespread expert consensus that natural gas exports abroad have driven up gas prices domestically.
“If this bill ever becomes law, Americans would pay more for the gas that heats their homes and keeps their lights on," Pallone said.
Florida Representative Max Frost dinged Republicans who he said had an “obsession with LNG and fossil fuels” and commended the Biden administration for what he posed as a “decisive and important step to fighting the climate crisis.”
“LNG is a loser for our pockets, it’s a loser for humanity, it’s a loser for our communities and it is killing us,” he said.
Frost, one of the youngest members of Congress, argued Republicans “have been fighting on behalf of their friends in Big Oil for longer than I’ve been alive.”
“I’m asking you, for the sake of humanity, for God’s sake, please find better friends,” he said.
Pfluger’s proposed bill now heads to the Democrat-controlled Senate, where it likely faces an uphill battle. Even some of the upper chamber’s more moderate voices on energy issues, such as West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, have been reticent to support stripping the Energy Department of its LNG approval authority.
Still, other Senate Democrats including the Pennsylvania delegation of Bob Casey and John Fetterman have expressed concerns about the White House’s export pause.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration criticized Pfluger’s bill in a statement Tuesday, arguing it would “undermine the ability of the United States to ensure that export of a critical and strategic resource is consistent with our economic, energy security, foreign policy and environmental interests.”
“The administration believes that the critical protections current law provides, which this legislation would repeal, should be retained to protect residential and industrial consumers and national and domestic energy security,” the White House said.
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