Louisiana judge ends freeze on new natural gas exports, but future expansion still uncertain

A federal judge in southwest Louisiana on Monday ended the Biden administration’s freeze on approvals for new liquefied natural gas export facilities, siding with 16 Republican attorneys general.

The lawsuit was one of several filed against the U.S. Department of Energy after the agency announced it would temporarily halt approvals for new gas export permits in January. The pause came as the federal agency sought to reassess whether the boom in U.S. gas exports is in the public interest, including its impact on the climate.

The lawsuit was led by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill and was joined by the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

In his decision, U.S. District Court Judge James Cain Jr. opposed the stay, calling it “completely devoid of reason and logic.” The reversal marks a victory for Republican officials and industry advocates who have been pushing for the U.S. to sell its gas worldwide.

“This is great news for Louisiana, our 16 state partners in this fight, and the country. As Judge Cain noted in his ruling, our state is at risk of losing approximately $61 billion in infrastructure because of this illegal outage,” said Attorney General Liz Murrill. “LNG has a profound and positive impact on Louisiana, providing clean energy to the world and good jobs here at home.”

Legal battle over climate

Cain largely agreed with most of the coalition’s arguments in his ruling, though he dismissed 13 of the 16 counts in the lawsuit against the Biden administration. He found enough substance in the states’ arguments that the shutdown could exceed the energy department’s statutory authority and could violate the Congressional Review Act.

Some experts say the order could be challenged and reviewed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, but the Energy Department did not respond when asked about next steps.

Cain, a Trump appointee, tried to overturn another Biden administration climate measure in 2022. That Louisiana-led lawsuit sought to block the federal government from updating estimates of the cost of damage from greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, a measure known as the social cost of carbon. The Fifth Circuit ultimately overturned Cain’s ruling and dismissed the state’s lawsuit in 2023.

The same thing could happen with this ruling, said Dan Grossman, associate vice president of global energy transition at the Environmental Defense Fund. But even if that doesn’t happen, Grossman said the lack of a break likely won’t have any practical consequences. Any LNG export permits approved now would take years to build and the first shipment of gas to be shipped overseas.

“But I think the message that comes out of this — that we just have to produce and export, produce and export, without considering the issues that are clearly in the public interest — is wrong,” Grossman said.

Whether or not a halt occurs, the Energy Department will continue to update its assessment of whether natural gas exports are in the public interest. The agency said it comprehensively considers the impacts on the climate, the national economy, public health and other factors. In the six years since the Energy Department last conducted a public interest assessment, U.S. natural gas exports have increased dramatically.

The country is currently the world’s largest exporter of natural gas, and its export capacity is expected to triple by 2030 as more export plants are expanded or come online. It is also the world’s largest producer of natural gas, and Grossman said the country needs a deeper understanding of the global impact of U.S. natural gas expansion.

“If we are comfortable being the largest producer of fossil energy and we are serious about addressing climate change, then analyses like this absolutely must happen,” he said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Biden administration was disappointed with the ruling but would continue to prioritize climate change.

“While congressional Republicans and their allies continue to deny the existence of climate change, President Biden is committed to combating the climate crisis with every resource available,” Jean-Pierre said.

Although natural gas burns cleaner than coal, leakage of methane — a climate super-poisoner — throughout the process from drilling to pipelines to shipping can mean U.S. gas is as dirty, if not dirtier, than coal.

The ruling comes as much of the United States grapples with a prolonged, sweltering heatwave resembling the summer of 2023 — set to be the hottest summer on record, perhaps in 2,000 years. Last summer was a sign of the toll greenhouse gas emissions are taking on the planet, and forecasters suspect this year will be similar.

Zero point for LNG

The Gulf Coast is at the center of a push to build more liquefied natural gas export terminals, with more than a dozen proposed in southwest Louisiana and East Texas.

Breon Robinson, a Lake Charles native and Healthy Gulf organizer, is one of the people living in the heart of the LNG expansion. While she supported stopping new development, she agreed with Grossman that the ruling is not a big loss.

“Everything that was already here, everything that was continually being destroyed and made communities in this area into sacrifice zones, they just continued to work as usual,” she said.

After the Supreme Court overturned important precedents like the Chevron doctrine and other decisions in the past few weeks, Robinson said Cain’s ruling was no surprise. She’s more focused on overhauling the Energy Department. She hopes it will lead to a significant decision that will help mitigate climate change. Lake Charles is both a hub for the oil and gas industry and deeply vulnerable to increasingly extreme weather events like hurricanes.

“It’s becoming something of a national emergency,” Robinson said. “It’s getting to the point where these natural disasters are getting… more intense, to the point where you’re telling people it’s just going to be too fast, that people are going to have to sit still instead of moving to safety.”

The Energy Department has not provided an update on its review, though it is expected to be completed next January after the November election. Both environmental and industry advocates are still waiting to assess the department’s assessment.