Greenies not always sharp on messaging.
“Biden banned/paused gas exports” is MAGA messaging meant to create confusion.
What’s actually happened is there has been a pause on a raft of new LNG facilities in the permitting phase, not plants currently under construction.
Bottom of this post, Energy Secretary Granholm gives some clarification. This pause has no impact on current Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) exports.
This is a good thing, and a first step to recognizing there is a problem for greatly expanded LNG capacity under current technology, due to the climate impacts of inevitable methane emissions in the process.
First thing’s first: The Biden Administration did not “block the export of LNG to other countries.” No existing LNG facility in the U.S. is affected by this decision. The eight existing LNG export terminals around the country will continue to operate.
The Biden administration is also not stopping *new* LNG exports. None of the 10 new LNG export facilities that are already approved by the Department of Energy are affected by this decision. So not only will LNG exports continue — they will massively expand.
Here’s what Biden actually did: put a *temporary* pause on granting Department of Energy approvals for *proposed new LNG export facilities.* In other words: The only facilities affected by this policy are ones that fossil fuel companies have not yet obtained permits for.
At least six major proposed LNG export terminals are affected by Biden’s pause. From a climate perspective, this is not nothing. Without a pause, these 6 facilities would have sailed through the normal approval process, and ensured future carbon equal to **317 coal plants**.
Biden’s LNG decision means one thing: that fossil fuel companies MAY no longer get automatic, rubber-stamped approved to build new LNG infrastructure. But the key word here is MAY.
The fact is, we still don’t know how long the pause will last, what the new approval process will look like, or how many of the affected projects will be accepted or rejected. And right now, for all we know, Biden might allow the process to move forward if he’s re-elected.
I don’t say any of this to downplay activists’ accomplishments, but to urge an accurate understanding of what’s happening with Biden’s LNG decision, and to caution against politically-motivated messaging that implies this fight is over.
Below, response from the American Petroleum Institute. Worth a listen as interviewer pushes back.
Of course the other problem is there was no specific connection to climate deterioration caused by methane made in the announcement. Should have been. See Bill McKibben’s writings on this.
I’ve looked back over my stuff and find I might be a little bit guilty of this, though only, it seems, when clipping someone else’s headline. I’ve only published “pause” twice in the aforementioned context and I don’t think the other links are confusing. Nowhere have I suggested he were “ending” production or export …
We’ll forgive you…this time.
Next time you get the guillotine!