The occupant of the White House paused approvals for pending and future applications to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from new projects. I asserted it was a desperate bid to appease the climate cultists among Democrats, who were unhappy with the amount of LNG being produced by this nation.
Hot Air noted the poor timing of the pause.
Back in January, in the middle of Houthi attacks, LNG gas shortages throughout Europe, and the start of the diversion of Red Sea shipping putting even more pressure on delivery avenues, POTATUS bowed to climate cult pressure and inexplicably issued a pause on new permits for LNG exporters. It was also a huge blow to American gas and oil producers who were spooling up to answer the call to be Europe’s reliable supplier of choice.There’s nothing like yanking the rug out from under everyone at the worst possible moment and when needed most, but that’s how our mushroom rolls.
Now a federal judge has slammed the brakes on Biden’s pause.
A federal judge on Monday dealt President Joe Biden’s climate agenda a setback by blocking the Democrat’s administration from continuing to pause the approval of applications to export liquefied natural gas (LNG).U.S. District Judge James Cain in Lake Charles, Louisiana, sided with 16 Republican-led states in holding that the U.S. Department of Energy’s freeze on approvals of LNG exports was “completely without reason or logic.”Cain, an appointee of Republican former President Donald Trump, said the states were likely to succeed in showing the pause contravened the Natural Gas Act and was arbitrary, capricious, and unconstitutional.Cain said the department’s actions were “above and beyond its scope of authority.” He said he had “reviewed the voluminous studies attached as exhibits, all of which boast of both the economic and environmental benefits of exporting natural gas.”
The judge has serious concerns about the unintended consequences of this pause, and one of the state attorneys general bringing the case asserted that the Energy Department overstepped its authority.
“Past precedent, which the applicants relied upon, allowed the approval of the applications to proceed when updates were made,” wrote Cain, who also blocked the Biden administration’s social cost of carbon estimate in 2022 — a decision overruled by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.Cain also agreed with red states that DOE failed to consider their concerns about the “impact on national security, state revenues, employment opportunities, funding for schools and charities, and pollution allegedly caused by increased reliance on foreign energy sources.”…West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, one of the state attorney generals leading the challenge, called the ruling a “big win for the country’s energy industry and the millions of jobs it supports.”“This administration’s Energy Department has no such authority to justify this ban— authority on matters like this lies with Congress and Congress alone,” Morrisey said in a statement.
LNG developers promptly called on the Biden administration to begin approving LNG export permits in light of the judge’s ruling.
This short-sighted and damaging pause has increased uncertainty in global energy markets, weakened U.S. relations with our allies, and risks our shared global climate goals,” said Charlie Riedl, executive director of the trade group Center for LNG.Even if the administration were not to appeal the ruling, it’s unclear if and when new LNG projects would get approved. There is no deadline for the Department of Energy to make a decision on LNG export permits.At present 13 LNG projects are awaiting a decision on permits to export to countries with which the United States does not have free trade agreements, including the European Union and Japan.
What was Biden’s response to this development? It seems the occupant of the White House’s X-feed now has dementia.
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