US to Release LNG Study by Mid-December

The U.S. plans to issue a study on the environmental and economic effects of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports by the middle of this month, a Department of Energy official said on Wednesday.

"We expect to release the final study ... by mid-December for a 60-day public comment period," Brad Crabtree, an assistant secretary at the DOE, told lawmakers at a House of Representatives hearing.

The administration of Democratic President Joe Biden put a pause in January on approvals of new LNG exports to countries with which the U.S. does not have a free trade agreement, in order to complete the study.

President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has said he would quickly reverse the pause on LNG approvals.

Crabtree said the pause only affected seven LNG projects, with about 5.6 billion cubic feet of capacity, while his office had authorized 48 bfc in exports since Biden became president in 2021. He said U.S. LNG exports, which hit a record in 2023, will more than double the current level by the end of the decade and that energy companies were having difficulty keeping up with all the work.

"There is so much project development going on on the Gulf Coast that they can't keep up," Crabtree said. "They are struggling to find workers."

Representative Pat Fallon, a Republican from gas-producing Texas, called the pause a "ban" on LNG exports and said it was an effort to kill American energy independence.

(Reuters - Reporting by Timothy Gardner; editing by Jonathan Oatis)