Sixteen states are suing the Biden administration over the gas permit pause
Louisiana and 15 other Republican-led states sued the Biden administration on Thursday over its decision to temporarily stop approving new permits for facilities that export liquefied natural gas.
The The lawsuit alleges that the Biden administration acted illegally when it decided in January to suspend approvals so it could study how gas exports affect climate change, the economy and national security.
The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, asks a judge to end the pause, arguing that the White House had ignored the rulemaking process and instead taken action ‘by fiat’ .
“There is no legal basis for the pause,” Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth B. Murrill, who led the legal challenge, said in an interview.
Ms. Murrill, who called the pause a ban, said suspending permits for a period of time would hurt states’ economies and have significant long-term consequences abroad by restricting the supply of gas from the United States to Europe.
The United States is the largest exporter of natural gas in the world. Liquefied natural gas is a gas that has been cooled to a liquid state to enable transportation and storage. Even with the pause, the country is still on track to nearly double its export capacity by 2027 thanks to projects already permitted and under construction. But any expansion beyond that is now in doubt.
“I’m not sure the American people are feeling the pain of this particular decision yet, but it is part of a larger plan by this administration to destroy the fossil fuel industry,” Ms. Murrill said.
The White House and Department of Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The pause on new export permits came after months of protests from environmentalists, who argued that adding new gas export facilities and expanding existing ones would mean decades of additional greenhouse gas emissions, the leading cause of climate change.
“People in every corner of the country and the world are suffering the devastating toll of climate change,” Biden said in January. “This pause on new LNG approvals sees the climate crisis for what it is: the existential threat of our time.”
The decision has angered the oil industry, Republicans and some Democrats. Pennsylvania senators, Democrats John Fetterman and Bob Casey, issued a rare statement opposing Mr. Biden during the recess. Sen. Joe Manchin III, a Democrat who represents the coal- and gas-rich state of West Virginia, said at an energy conference in Houston this week that “there needs to be a pause.”
John Podesta, Mr. Biden’s senior adviser on climate change, said this week that the White House was not surprised by the response.
“We definitely went in with our eyes open,” he said. Mr Podesta argued that it would be “wise” for the government to take the time to study the effect of gas on the climate.
Gas, which consists mainly of methane, is cleaner than coal when burned. But methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide in the short term. It can also leak anywhere in the supply chain, such as in the production pit, processing plants and the hob. The process of liquefying gas for transportation is also energy intensive, creating even more emissions.
In addition to Louisiana, the states contesting the pause are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
The states argued that a decision of such magnitude should have gone through a rulemaking process, during which states, industry and others could have publicly commented and had a chance to shape a decision.
The states argued that the “whims of activists cannot override the law.” The Natural Gas Act of 1938 calls for the Secretary of the Energy Department to issue an export permit unless it is determined after a hearing that the project is not in the public interest.
Brad Plumer contributed reporting from Houston.