In January 2024, the Biden administration halted approval for liquified natural gas (LNG) export projects, saying they needed to conduct additional environmental and economic impact studies.
It turns out that the administration already had the study it needed but hid its information from the public and ignored its recommendations.
The Daily Caller News Foundation reports that the Biden administration "deliberately buried a final draft version of a study that would have undermined its January 2024 decision to pause approvals for liquefied natural gas."
Moreover, according to sources at the Department of Energy, "The Biden DOE finalized a draft of the study in 2023 and subsequently buried it because the initial version’s findings would have contradicted the administration’s rationale for the LNG freeze."
The Biden DOE had essentially completed the final draft version of the LNG impacts study by the end of September 2023, and that version was ready to be presented to top Biden officials shortly thereafter, Trump DOE sources told the DCNF. That particular iteration of the study, DOE sources told the DCNF, found that increasing U.S. LNG exports would actually bring about a reduction in global emissions relative to other scenarios. [Emphasis added]
The September 2023 version of the study "was never released publicly," and the Biden DOE "appears to have deleted numerous pages that appeared in the September 2023 draft version from what became the final version of the report released to the public at the end of 2024," the sources told DCNF.
The deception gets even worse when you consider that then-President Joe Biden may not have even known what he was signing at the time. My colleague Matt Margolis wrote in January about House Speaker Mike Johnson's recollection of a meeting he had with Biden to discuss LNG.
According to Johnson, in Jan. 2024, he met with Biden in the Oval Office to discuss national security, but Johnson was specifically eager to address a recent executive order that had halted liquefied natural gas exports to Europe. This decision, which has far-reaching implications for both national security and economic interests, is particularly critical given Europe’s dependence on LNG, especially in the context of the ongoing Russian conflict. However, when Johnson raised the issue, Biden insisted he had not signed any such order.
The speaker recalled, “I said, Mr. President, why did you pause LNG exports to Europe? You understand you’re fueling Vladimir Putin’s war machine because they’ve got to get their gas from him.”
“I didn’t do that,” Biden insisted.
But, in fact, the executive order had been signed just weeks earlier.
Moreover, as we recently learned, Biden was relying heavily on the autopen during that time period. Someone was signing orders left and right, but it may not have been the president.
President Trump resumed review of energy exports in a January executive order. He directed the secretary of Energy to "restart reviews of applications for approvals of liquified natural gas export projects as expeditiously as possible, consistent with applicable law."
On Wednesday, the Trump Department of Energy approved its fifth LNG export authorization for Venture Global CP2LNG out of Cameron Parish, Louisiana. "This action reflects another step in the Trump administration’s commitment to restoring American energy dominance," a DOE press release declared.
“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 Energy Secretary Chris Wright. “Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, we are cutting the red tape around projects like CP2, unleashing our energy potential and ensuring [the] U.S. can continue to meet growing energy demand for decades to come.”
Former President Autopen could not be reached for comment.
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