The LNG Export Business Is Starting To Take Off Thanks To The Trump Administration
Just below is a press release from U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright that we thought was worthy of discussion, because we’ve seen a 180-degree turn in how the federal government is treating one of the most no-brainer economic development issues in modern history.
Namely, liquified natural gas exports.
Natural gas is the cleanest-burning fossil fuel there is, and America is absolutely loaded with it. Obviously, that should play a major factor in powering our electric grid, as natural gas is very transportable via pipeline and natural gas power plants are efficient and cheap to operate.
But we’ve got so much natural gas that we can’t burn all of it ourselves, and there is a giant world market out there for it. In Europe and Asia, there’s a huge demand and in neither place do they have a great amount of domestic supply (the Europeans actually might have a lot of natural gas, but they’re so eaten up with climate-change idiocy that they won’t use modern drilling methods to get any of it).
So the answer is to get aggressive, build all of the transport and export infrastructure we can, and start pumping that gas out of the ground and into our national bank account by driving the export numbers through the sky.
Except the Joe Biden administration for some reason shut down all the export licenses.
We’ve never seen anything like it. It was the equivalent of cutting off your nose to spite your face.
And Biden did it in the middle of the Ukraine war, which meant that while the Europeans were nominally opposed to the Russians they were buying more oil and gas from Russia than they were spending money helping the Ukrainians.
You’d look at them with disgust for that, especially given all the empty platitudes they’ve offered to Ukraine while depending on U.S. money and materiel to support the Ukrainian effort in that war, but on the other hand when there were companies out there trying to build facilities to ramp up natural gas exports to Europe and displace Russia from their markets, which would disadvantage the Russians and make our people richer while easing our national trade deficit and put more hard-currency revenue into our economy, Team Biden said no.
How utterly ridiculous.
It has to go down as one of the most idiotic decisions ever made by an American president, but of course we know that Biden didn’t make it. House Speaker Mike Johnson raised that issue in a one-on-one meeting with Biden in early 2024, explaining what a disaster his LNG export ban was, and Biden denied he’d signed any such order. It was shortly plain to Johnson that Biden wasn’t lying; he had no idea what he’d signed and he wasn’t actually running the government.
Now we know what that looks like and what results we get from it.
And thankfully, we also know what it looks like when responsible adults are in charge and are serious about moving the country’s economy forward.
Here’s the press release. It announces an export license for Venture Global to move forward with a sizable new LNG export facility…
CP2 is the third LNG export project that has been developed by Venture Global, with the Calcasieu Pass project coming online in March 2022 and the Plaquemines LNG project beginning exports in late 2024. Accompanying the buildout of LNG export terminals is an increase of natural gas pipelines across the U.S., with approximately 8.5 Bcf/d of pipeline additions for delivery to LNG export terminals recently completed in Texas and Louisiana.
Secretary Wright Signs Export Authorization for Venture Global CP2 LNG
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright today approved a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export authorization to the Venture Global CP2 LNG export project proposed for Cameron Parish, Louisiana. This action reflects another step in the Trump administration’s commitment to restoring American energy dominance.
“The benefits of expanding U.S. LNG exports have never been more clear, and I am proud to be taking action to support the American people and our allies abroad with more affordable, reliable, secure American energy,” said Secretary Wright. “Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, we are cutting the red tape around projects like CP2, unleashing our energy potential and ensuring U.S. can continue to meet growing energy demand for decades to come.”
The issuance to CP2 marks the fifth LNG-related approval from DOE since President Trump took office, following an export approval to Commonwealth LNG on February 14, an order on rehearing removing barriers for the use of LNG as bunkering fuel announced on February 28, an approval providing the Golden Pass LNG terminal more time to commence exports issued March 5, and approval granting the Delfin LNG project additional time to commence exports issued on March 10.
Once constructed, CP2, owned by Venture Global, will be able to export up to 3.96 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of LNG.
“The CP2 project is another project that has been waiting too long for regulatory action at DOE, and I am glad to see that being corrected today” said Tala Goudarzi, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. “With Venture Global’s track record of getting projects constructed quickly, I look forward to seeing this project come to fruition before long.”
Today’s authorization conditionally grants CP2 authorization to export LNG to non-free trade agreement countries from the proposed CP2 LNG project. In the order, DOE finds that LNG exports from CP2 LNG are likely to yield economic benefits to the United States, diversify global LNG supplies, and improve energy security for U.S. allies and trading partners over the course of the export term through 2050. DOE expects to issue a final order to CP2 LNG in the coming months.
