(The Center Square) – Both of Texas’ U.S. senators and one congressman, all from Houston, have filed a bill to protect the oil and natural gas industry.
Texas Republicans U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn filed the Protect LNG Act in the Senate; U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, filed companion legislation in the House.
“American energy has the ability to metaphorically and literally power the world, and Texas is the lead exporter of U.S. LNG,” Cruz said. “Those achievements have been under attack by fringe environmental groups, who use and are enabled by politicized courts. This legislation counters such attacks, and I’m proud to lead the fight to protect energy producers, the jobs they create in Texas, and America’s energy leadership. The Senate should expeditiously take it up and pass it.”
The bill would prevent courts from halting liquified natural gas (LNG) permits when a lawsuit is filed and require that the cases only be filed in the circuit court jurisdiction where the LNG facility is located, not the location of a federal agency that issues the requested permits.
It specifically stipulates that “a civil action relating to an environmental review under the Natural Gas Act or National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 with respect to a covered facility shall not affect the validity of a permit, license, or approval issued to the covered facility that is the subject of the civil action,” according to the bill language.
It states that if a civil action is brought, the applicable court “shall not set aside or vacate the permit, license, or approval issued to the covered facility but instead remand the matter to the relevant Federal agency to resolve the violation.”
It also would establish a 90-day period for lawsuits to be filed after an LNG permitting notice is published in the Federal Register and require expedited review of lawsuits against LNG facilities.
“Oil and natural gas production employs hundreds of thousands of hardworking Texans and is a critical part of the Texas economy, as well as our nation’s energy sector as a whole,” Cornyn said, adding that the bill will “help protect energy projects across our country from lawsuits that far-left climate activists file in an attempt to hamstring American energy.”
“Natural gas is the most impactful green initiative on the planet – it has the power to lift entire nations and communities out of poverty,” Hunt said. “Yet sadly, natural gas and LNG have been weaponized by the radical left and the climate cartel, driving up energy costs for hardworking Americans – just as we’re still reeling from the disastrous effects of Biden-flation.”
The bill was filed after both Republicans and Democrats called on the Biden administration to rescind its ban on new LNG permits, The Center Square reported.
It also comes after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in March reinstated approvals for LNG projects for Rio Grande LNG and Texas LNG Brownsville. The court previously vacated permits for both projects last August. It’s decision last year jeopardized 7,000 high-paying jobs and $24 billion in investment in the Rio Grande Valley and delayed a project by nearly 10 months.
If enacted, the bill would prevent a ruling like that from happening again.
Cruz and Cornyn previously introduced the Protect LNG Act last year, which went nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
The U.S. leads the world in LNG exports, led by the Gulf states of Texas and Louisiana. In 2017, the U.S. became a net exporter of natural gas for the first time since 1957, “primarily because of increased LNG exports,” according to the EIA. The U.S. became a net exporter after Cheniere Energy was the first to export domestically sourced LNG from the Sabine Pass LNG Terminal in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, and from the Port of Corpus Christi in Texas, The Center Square first reported.
Nearly 25% of U.S. natural gas reserves are located in Texas and 30% of the largest hundred natural gas fields in the U.S. are in Texas, which leads the U.S. in oil and natural gas production and emissions reductions, The Center Square reported.
The U.S. LNG industry “contributes a whopping $43.8 billion toward the U.S. GDP, and generates $11 billion in tax and royalty revenues for local, state and federal governments,” The Center Square reported.
