New Report Supports Freeing Up LNG Exports

Another new report provides more support for freeing up energy exports, including LNG. The report, “Energy Rush: Shale Production and U.S. National Security” comes from the Unconventional Energy and U.S. National Security Task Force, which is co-chaired by Ambassador Paula J. Dobransky, Governor Bill Richardson, and Senator John Warner.

The report looks at the ongoing shale boom in the United States and its implications for domestic energy needs and national security:

“As the United States imports less energy, some policy leaders hope that a push toward energy isolationism will insulate the country from instability in the global energy market. Such hopes are unfounded. Hoarding energy at home, neglecting bilateral relationships with major global energy players and forfeiting economic opportunities to export energy would leave the United States less secure. Moreover, policymakers would then be unable to use energy as a tool of economic statecraft to coerce or benefit other countries,” the report said.

The Department of Energy should take this report seriously and consider ways in which it can accelerate the approval of licenses to export LNG. Twenty-three LNG export license applications have been languishing at the Department of Energy – the longest for over 770 days. This report only adds to the overwhelming evidence that LNG exports are in the public interest.

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