LNG

The sudden change by the Biden administration regarding exporting of liquefied natural gas (LNG) is causing concern for the gas companies. It takes three to five years to construct an LNG export facility and there are currently five under construction. The ruling suggest that the future development in new facilities will be halted. Environmentalists and climate activists celebrated the delay, saying a halt to the exports would stop the country from plunging deeper into the climate crisis. Biden says, “This pause on new LNG approvals sees the climate crisis for what it is: the existential threat of our time.” This represents a misunderstanding of how world markets work. If there is a demand for LNG it will be produced if not by the United States by others suppliers like Qatar. Just as natural gas replaced coal use in the US the same will happen in other countries when they have access to natural gas. China's has increased LNG imports from 26,000 tons in 2021 to 620,000 tons in the first nine months of 2023. When China gets more LNG there is less pressure on China to burn coal. The US has the cleanest natural gas production in the world and natural gas produces about half the CO2 that coal does and in addition natural gas does not pollute the air with heavy metals like mercury and lead and does not produce nitrates and sulfates that cause acid rain.