DOE Releases Long-Awaited Studies of LNG Exports; Analysis Makes Clear Case for Biden Administration to Reject Pending LNG Permits

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 17, 2024

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Analysis Finds Major Economic, Climate, Health, and National Security Risks from LNG Exports

NATIONWIDE — The Biden Administration’s Department of Energy has just released its long-awaited, critical analysis of the impacts of liquified natural gas (LNG) exports, and the findings provide clear evidence of LNG’s climate, economic, national security, and public health dangers. These findings can now be incorporated into the Department of Energy’s future decision-making processes on LNG export authorizations and provide a solid legal foundation for challenges to LNG permits on the grounds that they are not in the public interest.

LNG exports in the United States have rapidly increased in recent years, harming public health, devastating the environment, raising prices for families, and threatening national security. New peer-reviewed research indicates that the climate impact of LNG is even greater than coal. Nevertheless, the oil and gas industry is seeking to build on its record profits by rapidly increasing the US’s LNG export capacity – even as demand drops in Europe and security concerns rise around exports via China.

President Biden’s historic action to pause and evaluate the impacts of new LNG exports earlier this year created the opportunity to change the status quo. This subsequent analysis provides a clear opportunity to ensure that decisions about LNG exports finally put the public’s needs ahead of industry profits. While the DOE’s analysis was drafted, 600,000 Americans weighed in to tell the Biden Administration to act to curb LNG exports, including climate scientists, public health professionals, consumer advocates, veterans, national security experts, lawmakers, over 500 domestic and international organizations, and frontline community members.

Now, DOE will open a 60-day comment period on the draft analysis. Advocates plan to use this opportunity to ensure the analysis is as comprehensive as possible in capturing the dangers of LNG exports and urge the Administration to acknowledge the findings of the analysis by rejecting all pending LNG export permits, as they are not in the public interest.

In response, advocacy leaders issued the following statements: 

“LNG exports serve corporate profits, not the public’s interest.The people of Appalachia have been asked to sacrifice our health and environment for fossil fuel extraction for generations, and frontline communities from Appalachia to the coast deserve better. We must curb LNG exports and reject all pending LNG export permits,” said Sarah Martik, Executive Director of the Center for Coalfield Justice.

“As a Black mother and an environmental justice leader living in Sulphur, La, a frontline community, I witness the harsh truth every day: the expansion of liquefied natural gas exports puts our families at risk while prioritizing corporate profits over our health and safety. My children face severe health conditions caused by the very pollution that LNG facilities unleash into our air and water. We cannot allow our communities to bear the burden of fossil fuel racism any longer. The Department of Energy’s findings confirm what we have long known—LNG exports not only devastate our environment but also escalate our energy costs and compromise our futures. True energy independence means investing in renewable solutions that uplift our communities, not shipping our resources abroad while we suffer. It’s time for President Biden to reject all pending LNG export authorizations and stand with us in the fight for a livable future,” said Roishetta Ozane, Founder/CEO, Vessel Project of Louisiana.

“This analysis provides the Biden administration with overwhelming legal, economic, and environmental justification to stop the unchecked expansion of LNG exports. The administration must not only reject all six pending LNG export projects, but also revoke authorizations for facilities approved under the outdated and inadequate standards that failed to account for their full climate and health impacts. As communities near LNG export facilities have long demonstrated, these mega-polluting projects damage their health, risk their safety, and weaken local economies. Climate science makes clear that the world can’t afford any expansion of LNG exports, because the U.S. already has more LNG capacity than is aligned with limiting warming to 1.5ºC. The Department of Energy analysis shows LNG exports compete with renewable energy adoption — not coal power — and undermine the path to a clean energy future. The report also reinforces that carbon capture does nothing to prevent LNG exports from releasing massive amounts of climate pollution, accelerating the climate crisis. Biden must use his final weeks in office to slow LNG expansion before Trump takes office,” said Allie Rosenbluth, United States Campaign Manager at Oil Change International.