Energy Department’s Gas Export Study Leaves Big Questions Unanswered

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), headed by Secretary Jennifer Granholm, released its long-awaited study related to the Energy, Economic, and Environmental impacts of U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) Tuesday afternoon. To no one’s real surprise, the study’s release immediately resulted in controversy between representatives of the domestic oil and gas industry and its critics in the climate movement.

A Wealth Of Conflicting Responses

Industry opposition group Food & Water Watch got a head start, issuing a release headlined “Biden's LNG Export Study is a Weak Response to Inherent Harms of the Industry” hours before the DOE report itself was released. “This study mirrors the Biden administration’s entire four-year approach to advancing a clean energy future: weak and half-hearted,” said the activist group’s policy director, Jim Walsh.

American Gas Association (AGA) president and CEO Karen Harbert to a competing stance, labeling the report “a clear and inexplicable attempt to justify their grave policy error,” adding that AGA “look[s] forward to working with the incoming administration to rectify the glaring issues with this study during the public comment period.”

Mike Sommers, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, said, “It’s time to lift the pause on new LNG export permits and restore American energy leadership around the world. After nearly a year of a politically motivated pause that has only weakened global energy security, it’s never been clearer that U.S. LNG is critical for meeting growing demand for affordable, reliable energy while supporting our allies overseas.”

Mike Sommers, president and chief executive officer of American Petroleum Institute (API), speaks during the 2024 CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston, Texas, US, on Monday, March 18, 2024. More than 7,000 people are headed to Houston to attend the conference with a key question in mind: How to meet increasing demand for power amid the transition to clean energy. Photographer: Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg© 2024 Bloomberg Finance LP\

But Cathy Collentine, director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign took the opposite view, saying that, “Halting the expansion of LNG exports has never felt more urgent than it does now, as we face another four years of an administration that prioritizes polluter handouts over people. We will not stop fighting against the buildout of LNG exports, as we continue to support communities who are on the frontlines of this climate disaster.”

Granholm’s Leaked Letter Overstates The Findings

Rather than simply release the study and let it stand on its own merit, outgoing Energy Secretary Granholm chose to preview it with an aggressively worded 3-page letter that somehow managed to be leaked to the New York Times a day ahead of the study’s release. It’s the sort of political tactic of which voters have grown weary, the kind of gamesmanship that may have helped lead to the November 5 election results.