Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas stated on Thursday that the state has joined 15 other states in seeking to overturn the Biden administration’s ban on licensing applications to export liquefied natural gas.
According to the lawsuit, the federal government is not authorized to reject such permits in their whole.
According to President Joe Biden, the suspension will give authorities time to assess the financial and ecological effects of proposals aiming to ship LNG to Europe and Asia, regions with significant LNG demand.
More than a dozen LNG export facilities that were slated to be built along the Gulf of Mexico coast are in danger of closing, according to experts, and this has raised serious concerns among locals and environmentalist organizations.
According to one research, 3.2 billion tons of greenhouse gases—or the entire emissions of the European Union—would be produced if all of the proposed gas export projects were to send gas overseas.
When President made the announcement in January, Biden stated, “This pause on new LNG approvals sees the climate crisis for what it is – the existential threat of our time.”
Louisiana has also sued to overturn the prohibition. It argues that as the region looks to rely less on Russian natural gas piped supplies, the decision will hurt the economy and jeopardize attempts to provide regular supplies of LNG to foreign partners in Europe.
Texas is the top producer of natural gas and crude oil in the country.
“Biden’s unilateral decree disregards statutory mandates, flouts the legal process, upends the oil and gas industry, disrupts the Texas economy and subverts our constitutional structure,” Paxton stated in the Texas suit.
“The ban will drive billions of dollars in investment away from Texas, hinder our ability to maximize revenue for public schools, force Texas producers to flare excess natural gas instead of taking it to market, and annihilate critical jobs.”
