Biden/Harris/Granholm LNG Pause Just Lost Its Reason to Exist

It almost seems too predictable to even mention at this point, but it turns out the rationale used by the Biden/Harris White House and Energy Department to justify its year-long “pause” in LNG permitting was basically phony. When it was implemented last January, supporters of the pause cited a draft study conducted by a long-time natural gas critic, Prof. Robert Howarth at Cornell University, as the scientific basis as justification.

The pre-print of Howarth’s study claimed that life-cycle emissions caused by the LNG value chain comes to somewhere between 24% to a whopping 274% greater than coal. Critics of the move said at the time that the claim, especially its upper extent, was too preposterous to take seriously, but the Biden/Harris regime, as always eager to please climate alarmist campaign funders, leapt into action.

Last week, nine months into this absurd permitting pause, Howarth at long last released his final study with highly modified findings. The final version of the study now claims LNG emissions to be 33% higher than that of coal and makes no mention of a range. While even 33% seems specious given the disparate emissions profiles of natural gas vs. coal, it is a fraction of the professor’s original alarmist upper range.