Biden Admin Challenges Court Ruling That Lifted Its Freeze on LNG Export Approvals

A liquefied natural gas tanker is guided by tugboats at the Cheniere Sabine Pass LNG export unit in Cameron Parish, La., on April 14, 2022. Marcy de Luna/Reuters

The Biden administration has appealed a court decision that blocked its freeze on new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export approvals.

In an Aug. 5 filing at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the Department of Energy (DOE) lodged its appeal of a July 1 order by a federal court in Louisiana that halted the government’s temporary moratorium on new licenses to export LNG to certain countries.

The appeal is the latest salvo in an ongoing legal battle that began in January when, in the name of fighting climate change, the White House ordered the DOE to stop approving new licenses to export LNG to countries that are not free trade partners with the United States.

“In every corner of the country and the world, people are suffering the devastating toll of climate change,” President Joe Biden said in a statement on Jan. 26. “This pause on new LNG approvals sees the climate crisis for what it is: the existential threat of our time.”

The temporary freeze was meant to allow the DOE to scrutinize the underlying economic and environmental analyses for a number of LNG export authorizations, including reviewing them for their effect on greenhouse gas emissions, the economy, and national security.

Environmental groups, which had urged the administration to slow down or stop approvals for LNG export projects, hailed the temporary moratorium as a victory.

By contrast, a group of more than 150 Republican lawmakers pushed back against the moratorium, calling on Biden to lift the ban and quickly approve all pending applications to increase the global supply of natural gas, while denouncing the freeze as “economically and strategically dangerous and unnecessary.”

Later, a group of Republican-led states mounted a legal challenge to the moratorium, arguing that it threatens the energy security of U.S. allies, puts billions of dollars of infrastructure projects in the United States at risk, and deprives states of valuable LNG export revenues.

“The LNG Export Ban implicates an issue of profound national importance,” a coalition of 16 states wrote in the complaint. “LNG exports account for billions of dollars to the economy and thousands of jobs. They also raise serious questions of national security.”

The coalition of states argued that the temporary moratorium violated the Administrative Procedure Act, the Congressional Review Act, and the U.S. Constitution. The states asked the court to declare the LNG export ban unlawful and to overturn it.

On July 1, a federal judge in Louisiana sided with the red state coalition. Judge James Cain Jr., of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, said the DOE’s decision to halt approvals appeared to be “completely without reason or logic” and issued a preliminary injunction that blocked the LNG export ban.

The DOE’s appeal of that decision signals that the Biden administration is determined not to let one of its signature policy decisions be overturned without a fight.