AUSTIN State Representative Brooks Landgraf (R-Odessa) and the members of the House Select Committee on Protecting Texas LNG Exports held a hearing in Port Arthur on Thursday to discuss the potential impacts of the Biden administration’s temporary pause on pending approvals of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exports to countries without a free trade agreement with the United States.
“President Biden has placed our nation’s economic and national security at significant risk for political gain,” Landgraf said. “The impacts of LNG exports have been studied extensively in the last two decades. Pausing pending approvals of LNG exports at this time based on the claim that additional research is necessary is absolutely incredulous. The Biden Administration is simply attempting to buy votes in November under the guise of environmental protection. The administration’s unilateral actions strike at the heart of our state’s prosperity, our country’s national security and threaten to undermine the very foundation of our energy industry”
In January, the Biden Administration announced a temporary pause on pending decisions on exports of LNG to non-FTA countries until the Department of Energy (DOE) can update the underlying analyses for authorizations. The administration claims that the pause is necessary because the economic and environmental analyses used by the DOE to underpin its LNG export authorizations are five years old and no longer adequate. In response, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) established the House Select Committee on Protecting Texas LNG Exports.
“Texas is blessed to have a House Speaker that is serious about energy,” Landgraf continued. “Speaker Phelan is a champion for Texas energy, hailing from the downstream community of Beaumont. I’m thankful he is in the foxhole with me fighting to ensure that Texas continues to be an energy leader and, as such, a global force for good. If there is a drop in Texas LNG exports, countries like Qatar and Russia will fill in the gap, ignoring human rights and without any regard for the environment. Contrary to the Biden Administration’s claims, Texas LNG exports make the world a cleaner and safer place. I look forward to demonstrating these facts once again as a member of the Protecting Texas LNG Exports Select Committee.”
Speaker Phelan established the House Select Committee on Protecting Texas LNG Exports and instructed the committee to analyze the applicable legal authorities under which the federal action was taken, including the Natural Gas Act of 1938, as amended (15 U.S.C. section 717 to 717z), and the Administrative Procedure Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. section 551-559); assess the potential economic, environmental, and social impacts of such federal action on the state; identify strategies to mitigate all adverse effects on the LNG industry. Texas’s energy sector, and the state’s economy as a whole; and formulate recommendations for legislative, policy, or other remedial actions to address the challenges posed by the federal suspension of LNG export permits.
