The Department of Energy (DOE) is responsible for assessing if domestic natural gas can be authorized for export as liquefied natural gas (LNG) to non-Free Trade
Agreement (FTA) countries.
To make that determination, the DOE evaluates and analyzes a range of factors related to economics, national security, market and environmental data to determine whether that LNG export request is in the “public interest.”
Recently, the DOE announced it would be pausing review of pending export applications while it updated its economic and environmental analysis that underpin this review. The last time these were formally updated were in 2018 and 2019, respectively. At that time, U.S. LNG export capacity was less than 4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). Today, that capacity has more than tripled, and the U.S. is the world’s largest LNG exporter with capacity set to nearly double by 2030 because of additional projects currently under construction. Cumulative approved exports are at 48 Bcf/d, over three times our current export capacity.
A lot has changed since 2018. Americans should have the latest understanding of what higher exports mean for our economy, our security, and our health before U.S. energy leaves our shores.
Since the announcement, there has been a lot of noise about what this decision means. To correct the record, DOE is shedding light on the facts and dispelling common misconceptions.
