Biden Administration Halts New LNG Terminals, Impacting Pennsylvania’s Energy Projects

In Cameron, Louisiana, residences stand in front of a Venture Global LNG storage tank. (Getty Images))

The Biden administration’s prohibition on the construction of additional liquefied natural gas export facilities casts doubt on what might be an “economy-changing” project for Pennsylvania, House Republican members said Monday.

Speakers from the manufacturing, natural gas, and construction industries said a proposed LNG export terminal on the Delaware River would create thousands of jobs across the state, produce $7 billion in economic activity, and generate $1 billion in additional tax income.

With the world supply of natural gas under threat from war and political instability, Carl Marrara, executive director of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association, told the House Republican Policy Committee that Pennsylvania had a market for Marcellus Shale gas in Europe.

“The Biden administration has effectively put a blockade on all new LNG terminal construction by instituting an indefinite ban on applications approving new facilities,” Marrara told reporters.

Republican state legislators are not alone in criticizing the indefinite delay to LNG terminal permits, which the Biden administration claims is required to allow the US Department of Energy to revise the economic and environmental analyses used to approve such projects.

Following Biden’s announcement, Pennsylvania’s Democratic U.S. Senators John Fetterman and Bob Casey issued a statement expressing their concern over the president’s choice.

Pennsylvania is an energy state. “As the second largest natural gas-producing state, this industry has created good-paying energy jobs in towns and communities across the Commonwealth and has played a critical role in promoting US energy independence,” wrote Casey and Fetterman.

The senators said the immediate effects on Pennsylvania remained to be seen, but they were concerned about the moratorium’s long-term effects on thousands of natural gas employees in the state.

“If this decision puts Pennsylvania energy jobs at risk, we will push the Biden Administration to reverse this decision,” said Casey and Fetterman in a joint statement.

“This is not a partisan issue,” said Rep. Martina White (R-Philadelphia), who chaired a task team to assess the benefits and drawbacks of a $6.4 billion LNG export terminal proposed for Chester, Delaware County.

In addition to opposing natural gas as a source of global carbon emissions, environmentalists said that the terminal would perpetuate environmental injustice in Chester, one of Pennsylvania’s poorest communities, where citizens suffer from illnesses as a result of the city’s industrial heritage.

According to Pennsylvania Building and Construction Trades President Robert Bair, natural gas, which emits fewer pollutants such as carbon dioxide, will be “the lynchpin” in attaining the worldwide goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.

“We are going to have an energy crisis in Pennsylvania,” said Bair, who backed Gov. Josh Shapiro when he revealed his energy plan last month.

Pennsylvania’s electric grid is scheduled to retire as much generating capacity as demand increases during the next decade, virtually tripling the requirement for new units.

“What I can tell you is we’re not going to build that much renewable energy, so gas has to play a part in this,” Bair was quoted as saying.