The developer of a major liquefied natural gas terminal in Louisiana is pushing the Department of Energy to act speedily on its export application following a federal judge’s reversal of the Biden administration’s pause on pending and new LNG export licenses.
In a letter last week to DOE, a lawyer for the Lake Charles LNG project said the department’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management should “expeditiously act on its pending application in this docket and issue an order without delay.” The company’s dispatch is one of the first examples of pressure on the department to act on an export application since the end of the pause, which froze consideration of permits to countries that don’t have a free trade agreement with the United States.
The project, which is being developed by Energy Transfer subsidiary Lake Charles Exports, already has a license from DOE to export gas to non-free trade agreement countries, but that authorization expires in December 2025. The company submitted a new application to DOE in August after telling the department it’s unable to start shipments by the existing deadline, despite “substantial and substantive efforts” to move the project forward.
The proposal seeks to export up to 851 billion cubic feet each year, making it among the largest export facilities planned along the Gulf Coast. In its missive to DOE, Energy Transfer said the Biden administration’s pause — unveiled in late January to widespread condemnation from the oil and gas sector — “has caused considerable angst among companies that have previously entered into long term LNG offtake contracts” with Lake Charles Exports.
