Texas Oil & Gas Association (TXOGA) sided with a recent Louisiana court ruling that in effect halts the pause of LNG permits announced earlier this year by the Biden administration.

U.S. District Judge James Cain of the western district of Louisiana ruled on July 1 to put on hold the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) pause on LNG export permits, arguing that the DOE failed to justify why it needed to pause the approvals to review the process by which it permits projects, Poten & Partners Head of Data Analytics Ben Gonzalez said July 2 during a webinar.

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TXOGA President Todd Staples. (Source: TXOGA)

"The court’s ruling to end the LNG export permit approval halt achieves the right result,” TXOGA President Todd Staples said in the trade association’s  July 2 press release. “U.S. natural gas has ushered in a new era of energy security by providing for needs here at home and to allies around the globe.”

The ruling deals “a legal blow to the Biden administration’s climate agenda,” Gonzalez said.

A Jan. 26 a decision by the DOE sparked a heated discussion—and not just in the U.S.—over Biden’s policy to freeze the approval process of new LNG export projects until further analysis is complete.

Biden’s mandate specifically relates to whether “additional LNG export authorization requests to non-FTA countries are in the public interest.”

Biden’s pause effectively impacts all LNG export projects that have not yet received approval. The move puts the brakes on billions of dollars in development for energy companies.

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