On 9 January, the American Public Gas Association (APGA) filed motions to intervene in opposition to two LNG export applications.
Texas LNG
The first application was filed by Texas LNG to export approximately 98.6 billion ft3/yr to free-trade agreement (FTA) and non-FTA countries from a proposed South Texas LNG export project to be located at the Port of Brownsville, Texas.
Venture Global LNG
The second motion to intervene is in response to an application from Venture Global LNG to export approximately 243.6 billion ft3/yr of domestic LNG to FTA and non-FTA countries from a proposed LNG export project to be located in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. Venture Global has also filed an earlier application for LNG export; the sum total of this application and the earlier one is 487.2 billion ft3/yr.
Gas price concerns
The arguments raised by APGA in its filings include the impact LNG export will have on the price of natural gas in the US, including the harm it will cause for the current domestic manufacturing renaissance. APGA objections have focused on the policy impacts of LNG export rather than the merits, or lack thereof, of any specific individual LNG application.
In its filings, APGA explains that the export of LNG will “increase domestic natural gas prices, burdening households and jeopardising potential growth in the US manufacturing sector, as well as the nation’s transition away from more environmentally damaging fossil fuels.”
The filings add that the anticipated price increases that will result from LNG export “would burden the US consumers who can least afford the increase and disadvantage domestic manufacturing.” The applications are “inconsistent with the public interest because it will increase domestic natural gas and electricity prices to the detriment of all consumers, inhibit this nation’s ability to forge a path toward energy independence, and undermine sustained economic growth in key manufacturing sectors.”
Adapted from press release by Katie Woodward