Sen. Murkowski welcomes Cameron LNG approval

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski applauded the Department of Energy (DOE) for granting final approval to two liquefied natural gas export projects – Cameron LNG in Louisiana and Carib Energy in Florida.

The approvals come after repeated calls from Murkowski for DOE to streamline its export review policies to ensure that American natural gas maintains its competitive edge in the world marketplace.

“I have long advocated for expediting federal approval of increased natural gas exports. The economic and energy security benefits of exporting LNG to our friends and allies are straightforward and irrefutable,” Murkowski said. “Today’s market-based decision is a step in the right direction and one I hope will be repeated soon and often.”

In June, Murkowski pressed DOE officials to continue issuing conditional licenses until proposed changes to its application process were finalized, and then to quickly issue final licenses to projects that had already been through environmental review by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Murkowski said that DOE’s action is further evidence that the administration is taking seriously requests for swifter action on applications to ship LNG to non-free trade countries. DOE issued a conditional license to Oregon LNG at the end of July, prior to finalizing changes to its application process on Aug. 15. This approval will allow Cameron to export up to 1.7 billion cubic feet of LNG a day, and Carib to export up to 40 million cubic feet a day, both for periods of 20 years.

“It appears that Secretary Moniz has been able to take positive steps to right the ship on LNG exports,” Murkowski said. “That’s good news for our economy because we can’t afford to sit on the sidelines as other producing countries compete for market share.”

Press Release, September 11, 2014; Image: murkowski.senate.gov