Biden's pause on natural-gas exports rolled back in House vote. Senate is unlikely to follow suit. - Morningstar
Biden's pause on natural-gas exports rolled back in House vote. Senate is unlikely to follow suit. | Morningstar
MarketWatch
Biden's pause on natural-gas exports rolled back in House vote. Senate is unlikely to follow suit.
By Robert Schroeder
White House 'strongly opposes' election-year effort
The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill that would roll back President Joe Biden's pause on approvals for new liquefied-natural-gas exports, but the election-year measure faces a steep climb in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
The Biden administration last month made the announcement that it was pausing LNG-export approvals, sparking political backlash and drawing cheers from climate activists while stoking uncertainty in energy markets, as MarketWatch previously reported.
Commodities Corner: What Biden's decision to pause new U.S. LNG exports means for the energy market
The U.S. delaying its decisions on new LNG exports to non-free-trade-agreement countries allows time for the Energy Department to update the underlying analyses for LNG-export authorizations, the White House said at the time. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the process wouldn't affect already authorized exports or gas exports to U.S. allies.
The Republican-led bill passed the House on a vote of 224 to 200, as nine Democrats joined their GOP counterparts.
The bill would strip the Energy Department of its permitting authority for natural-gas exports and hand that power exclusively to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, an independent body.
"The decision to ban exports creates uncertainty and discourages investments that would otherwise create jobs and expand the supply of natural gas," said Rep. August Pfluger, the Texas Republican who is the lead sponsor of the House bill. "I am proud that the House passed my legislation to promote American energy dominance and stand up for jobs in the Permian Basin."
There is a similar measure in the Senate, but with Democrats in charge of that body, the bill may not even come up for a vote.
The White House, while not issuing a veto threat, said it "strongly opposes" the House bill and argued it would undermine the country's ability "to ensure that export of a critical and strategic resource is consistent with our economic, energy security, foreign policy, and environmental interests."
Natural gas has fallen to its lowest price since mid-2020, with warmer U.S. weather and ample supplies of the fuel pulling prices down. The front-month March natural-gas futures contract (NGH24) on Thursday settled at $1.58 per million British thermal units, for the lowest finish since June 26, 2020, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Myra P. Saefong contributed.
-Robert Schroeder
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Related Knowledge Center: Liquefied natural gas
Driven by plentiful natural gas produced from shale plays, the United States began exporting liquefied natural gas in 2016 when the Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana opened and shipped its first cargo. Since then, additional capacity, or trains, have been added to Sabine Pass, and terminals have become operational in Cameron Parish, La.; Hackberry, La.; Cove Point, Md.; and Corpus Christi, Texas. The Energy Information Administration projects that U.S. LNG export capacity will reach 8.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) by the end of 2019, making it the third largest in the world, behind Australia and Qatar. The tariff war with China has the potential to impact some final investment decisions for additional terminals in the coming months.