DOE Releases Study

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON, DC. December 17, 2024—Earlier today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released an update to the economic and environmental studies that help guide decisions to authorize exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States to non-Free Trade Agreement nations. The DOE update takes the form of a summary document and four detailed appendices.

Fred H. Hutchison, President & CEO of LNG Allies (The USLNG Association) had these comments: “There is a lot to digest in these studies, but the  one thing that jumped right out at me it was how much of the data buried within the results seems to contradict the hyperbolic ‘cover letter’ penned by DOE Secretary Jennifer Granholm and leaked yesterday to the New York Times.

“Granholm’s line (in that letter) that a ‘business-as-usual approach [to U.S. LNG exports] is neither sustainable nor advisable’ is a perfect—albeit ironic—argument for why a 180-degree course correction is desperately needed in DOE leadership: Refusing for years to act upon meritorious U.S. LNG export applications was neither a sustainable nor advisable approach. We look forward to a return to ‘regular order’ where such applications are considered fairly and expeditiously.

In conclusion, Hutchison said: “As we dig deeper into the updated analyses that were made public today, we will be looking at the models selected by DOE’s national laboratories, the assumptions and scenarios utilized in the modelling, and the non-standard methodologies that seem to have been employed, quite possibly to reach predetermined outcomes.

“Multiple legitimate studies from national laboratories, academic consortia, and private research firms have shown that U.S. LNG exports reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by displacing coal and other high-emission fuels and that these reductions are achievable without raising domestic gas prices.”

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