Power chief Granholm warns towards exports of liquefied pure fuel : NPR

WASHINGTON — The USA ought to proceed cautiously as officers think about new pure fuel export terminals, Power Secretary Jennifer Granholm stated Tuesday, warning the incoming Trump administration that “unfettered exports” of liquefied pure fuel, or LNG, may drive up home costs and enhance planet-warming greenhouse fuel emissions.

Granholm’s assertion got here because the Power Division launched a long-awaited examine on the environmental and financial impacts of pure fuel exports, which have grown exponentially prior to now decade. The evaluation discovered that U.S. LNG shipments drive up home wholesale costs and often displace renewable power sources corresponding to wind and solar energy.

Elevated LNG exports additionally would result in larger world greenhouse fuel emissions, even with use of newly developed gear to seize and retailer carbon emissions, the report stated.

“Unfettered exports of LNG would increase wholesale domestic natural gas prices by over 30%,” costing American households an additional $100 a year by 2050, Granholm said

“We now have not too long ago lived by way of the real-world ripple results of elevated power costs domestically and globally for the reason that (COVID-19) pandemic, she stated, including that an “export-induced price increase” would make it tougher for some households to fulfill fundamental wants.

“Today’s publication reinforces that a business-as-usual approach (to LNG exports) is neither sustainable nor advisable,″ Granholm said.

The Energy Department report comes after the Biden administration paused approvals of new LNG projects in January to study the effects LNG exports have on the planet. Natural gas emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas, when burned, leaked or released.

The oil and gas industry, along with Republican allies in Congress, have decried the LNG pause as unnecessary and counter-productive, and President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to end the pause on his first day in office. The pause is on hold under a federal court order, but the Energy Department recently said it won’t decide on two major LNG export projects in Louisiana until the independent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission completes environmental reviews.

Trump’s transition group declined direct touch upon the examine, however stated Trump “will make America energy dominant again” and shield U.S. power jobs after 4 years of “war on American energy” below President Joe Biden.

“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,” said spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt.

Still, the study could hinder Trump’s plans to immediately greenlight projects to export LNG. Trump said last week that anyone making a $1 billion investment in the United States “will obtain absolutely expedited approvals and permits, together with, however on no account restricted to, all Environmental approvals.”

Environmentalists have said they will use the DOE analysis in lawsuits expected over any Trump administration approvals of LNG projects. Activists decry the multi-billion dollar export terminals as “local weather bombs.”

LNG is especially energy intensive, since the gas must be retrieved through underground drilling, then piped to export terminals along the East and Gulf coasts. The gas is then “superchilled” into a liquid that is taken by tanker ships to import terminals in Europe and Asia, where it is then reheated into gas and distributed for business and family use.

The American Gas Association called the Biden administration’s pause a mistake that has resulted in uncertainty for the global market, investors and America’s allies around the world.

“This report is a transparent and inexplicable try to justify their grave coverage error,” said AGA president and CEO Karen Harbert. “America’s allies are affected by the weaponization of pure fuel and power deprivation, and any limitations on supplying life important power is completely wrong-headed.”

Harbert said the industry group looks forward to working with the Trump administration “to rectify the evident points with this examine in the course of the public remark interval,” which lasts till mid-February.

The DOE report got here as an impartial evaluation discovered that elevated LNG exports would assist almost half 1,000,000 home jobs and contribute $1.3 trillion to U.S. gross home product by way of 2040. The examine, launched Tuesday by the analysis agency S&P International, initiatives that U.S. LNG export capability will double over the following 5 years, with little affect on home costs.

“The emergence of the U.S. LNG industry has placed the United States in the pole position with global demand for gas expected to grow through 2040, alongside the rapid growth of renewables,” stated Daniel Yergin, the group’s vice chairman and a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer.

U.S. LNG “remains a vital tool for countries looking to displace dirtier fuels” corresponding to coal, stated Charlie Riedl, government director of the Heart for LNG, a pro-industry group. U.S. fuel shipments to Europe and Asia have soared since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The LNG pause, introduced by Biden because the 2024 election yr started, aligned the Democratic administration with environmentalists who concern the massive enhance in LNG exports in recent times is locking in doubtlessly catastrophic planet-warming emissions at a time when Biden has pledged to chop U.S. local weather air pollution in half by 2030.

“While MAGA Republicans willfully deny the urgency of the climate crisis, condemning the American people to a dangerous future, my administration will not be complacent,″ Biden said in announcing the pause. His actions “heed the calls of younger individuals and frontline communities who’re utilizing their voices to demand” climate action, Biden added.

Environmental groups hailed the DOE study, saying it found clear evidence of LNG’s climate, economic, national security and public health dangers.

“This examine confirms that Donald Trump’s plans to supercharge LNG exports will come on the expense of customers and the local weather,” said Raena Garcia, senior energy campaigner at Friends of the Earth. She urged Biden and Granholm to reject all pending LNG projects as against the public interest.

“If Trump wants to drive up dangerous gas exports, he’s going to have to answer for causing more deadly storms, condemning the Rice’s whale to extinction and socking consumers with higher costs,” stated Lauren Parker, an lawyer on the Heart for Organic Variety, one other environmental group.

Parker’s remark refers to an endangered whale species within the Gulf of Mexico. Environmentalists say offshore drilling for oil and fuel threatens the species’ habitat.