Biden admin report could slow Trump's efforts to unleash domestic natural gas, experts say

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A report from the Biden administration on the environmental impacts of increasing liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports could add delays to President-elect Trump's efforts to immediately authorize new licenses for the fuel, experts say. 

Brad Crabtree, the Department of Energy (DOE)'s assistant secretary for the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, told lawmakers last week that the report, intended to measure the economic and environmental implications of increasing U.S. exports of the fuel, would be released by mid-December. Under the Natural Gas Act, the DOE must evaluate whether exports are in line with the public's interest before issuing any new permits.

While some experts dismissed the magnitude of the report, citing the fact that Trump can just undo any restrictions Biden puts on natural gas, others suggested it could provide fodder for environmentalists wanting to go after the Trump administration.

"Corporate sponsors don't put billions of dollars to work on fragile permits, period, full stop," said Kevin Book, managing director at ClearView Energy Partners, an independent research and analysis firm that covers the natural gas sector. "The industry is right to expect support [from the Trump administration] but the documentation has to be airtight."

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The U.S. Department of Energy headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Getty)

Book noted that if the report is published and lays out reasons why new natural gas permits are not in the public's interest, it would require the incoming Trump administration to come up with a different study, or a different interpretation of the study, in order to get to a place where it can cleanly say "yes" to new natural gas permits. Book said that depending upon what is shared in the Biden administration's new study, that process could take anywhere from a few weeks to several months, if not multiple quarters.

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"I’m a strong supporter of LNG exports. Unfortunately, the report could slow down movement on new LNG export licenses both because the Trump team will need to respond to comments and because the report could provide fodder – even if it is unfounded – for those who claim that LNG exports have detrimental consequences," said Jeff Kupfer, the president of nonprofit ConservAmerica and a former acting deputy secretary and chief operating officer at the DOE under the second George W. Bush administration.

A tank car before loading at the Elbehafen port in Brunsbuettel, Germany, on April 25, 2016. (Bodo Marks/picture alliance via Getty Images)

While other energy sector experts agreed that the move could spell potential legal hurdles for the Trump administration and, thus, delay new natural gas licensing, they suggested there was not much to worry about. 

"It's a last ditch effort," said Trisha Curtis, CEO of PetroNerds and an economist at the American Energy Institute. "Could there be legal setbacks? Yeah. Just like there were legal setbacks under the Biden administration, and then they fight those legal battles. But if you're trying to hurry up and issue a study before the end of the year, and then have a two-month comment period, I'm not sure anything's going to really stick. Especially if your comment period is during the Trump administration."

The Biden administration announced a "temporary pause" on issuing new natural gas export permits in January, which included a DOE review of the current environmental impact analysis that the department uses to meet requirements under the Natural Gas Act. Under that measure, which was passed nearly 75 years ago, the DOE must evaluate whether natural gas exports are in line with the public's interest before issuing any new permits.

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President Biden has repeatedly taken aim at the fossil fuel industry as part of his sweeping climate agenda. (Getty Images)

The requirement excludes free trade agreement countries, but, according to Book, 80% of the liquefied natural gas market is countries that do not have free trade agreements with the U.S.

Trump has signaled that he wants to remove the natural gas pause immediately in order to boost domestic energy production. This is among several actions he plans to take to peel back the Biden administration's climate regulations. On his Truth Social platform on Tuesday, he wrote: "Any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals. GET READY TO ROCK!!!"

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"Families have suffered under the past four years' war on American energy, which prompted the worst inflation crisis in a generation," Trump-Vance Transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "Voters re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail, including lowering energy costs for consumers. When he takes office, President Trump will make America energy dominant again, protect our energy jobs, and bring down the cost of living for working families."

Fox News Digital reached out to the DOE for comment but did not receive a response by press time.