House bill would speed approval of LNG export facilities

Fuel Fix:

The House voted Wednesday to force the Obama administration to accelerate its scrutiny of dozens of proposed natural gas export projects, responding to energy companies’ clamor to sell the fossil fuel to Japan, Thailand and other countries.

The measure, which passed 266-150, represents a bid to hasten federal regulatory reviews of the multibillion-dollar projects needed to transform natural gas into a liquid that can be loaded into tankers and shipped overseas. Although the Energy Department has issued seven licenses to broadly export liquefied natural gas to countries that do not have free-trade agreements with the United States, some two dozen more proposals are pending.

The legislation would impose a 30-day deadline for the Energy Department to rule on those applications, with the clock starting after the bill is enacted or the required environmental reviews of the construction plans are finished.

That’s a big change from the original version of the bill, sponsored by Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., which would have deemed many pending natural gas export applications automatically approved.

Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, helped broker the compromise that preserved some Energy Department review of the export proposals while imposing the deadline for its action. The effect was to guarantee Green’s “aye” vote and lure other Democratic support. Ultimately, 46 Democrats joined 220 Republicans in voting for the modified legislation Wednesday.
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This creates a test of sanity for the Senate where Harry Reid blocks good ideas like this one. Gardner is a candidate for the Senate in Colorado.  He and other candidates running against Democrat incuments may have to win in order to pass laws that will lift Democrat bans on trade.