Company Applies for LNG Export License as House Committee Debates License Policy
Trunkline LNG Export Company applied for a long-term contract to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from a terminal in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The company is asking for a 25-year contract from the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy, to export up to 15 million metric tons of natural gas per year. The application was announced the same day as a House subcommittee hearing on the Department’s strategy for exporting LNG. “As a nation, we have already decided exporting is consistent with our public interest, and we will continue to export natural gas by pipeline and LNG to [free trade agreement] and Non-FTA countries,” said Rep. James Lankford, R-Okla., Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy Policy, Health Care, and Entitlements, in his opening statement (here).
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“The only issue here is how and when the Department will process the approximately 20 remaining LNG export applications in the queue. Every other applicant is now significantly behind the first permit holder, which was permitted almost two years ago, and it is essential that the process moves fairly and expeditiously, Lankford said.” Christopher Smith, Acting Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy, said that the Department has received all public comments on those applications. It will consider those comments, a government-funded economic impact study, the application’s record and “then make a public interest determination an act on pending applications on a case-by-case basis,” he said in testimony (here).
Paul Cicio, president of the Industrial Energy Consumers of America, said in testimony his association of manufacturing companies is concerned LNG exports “could negatively impact manufacturing competitiveness and jobs.” He urged the Department to improve its “public determination test” to better analyze the effects of LNG exports (here).