Oil Heavyweights Take Aim at Biden’s LNG Permitting Freeze
- Six groups join American Petroleum Institute to seek hearing
- Move comes as Qatar announces plans for major new LNG project
Employees look over an LNG facility under construction in Corpus Christi, Texas in December.
Photographer: Mark Felix/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Top oil industry lobbying groups set the stage for a potential lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s pause in approving new liquefied natural gas exports.
In a petition filed Monday with the Energy Department, the American Petroleum Institute and six other groups say the indefinite delay runs afoul of a legal mandate for the agency to issue permits to broadly export LNG unless there’s been a clear finding the shipments aren’t in the public interest. The petition calls the move “arbitrary and capricious” and says it violates administrative requirements in federal law — a prelude to potential litigation that could raise the same claims.