In a lawsuit joined by Oklahoma several months ago against the Biden administration’s freeze on new liquefied natural gas export approvals, a federal judge this week reversed the Energy Department’s freeze.
U.S. District Judge James Cain in the Western District of Louisiana issued an order late Monday that DOE’s export pause would be “stayed in its entirety, effective immediately.”
Led by Louisiana and Texas and joined by Oklahoma 13 other states, the suit accused the Biden administration of overstepping its authority in announcing the freeze in January. “This ban disregards statutory mandates, flouts the normal regulatory process, upends the industry, disrupts Plaintiffs’ economies, and subverts our constitutional structure,” the suit reads. “These unlawful actions leave Plaintiffs with no choice but to once more turn to the courts to enforce the law.”
Judge Cain ruled the DOE freeze was in violation of the Natural Gas Act and skirted “Congress’s determination that LNG exports are presumptively in the public interest.”
E&E News reported the DOE said that it disagreed with Monday’s ruling, adding it “continues to review the court’s order and evaluate next steps.”
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