This January, after the Biden administration said it would temporarily pause new natural gas export permitting, climate advocate Bill McKibben wrote: “Um, I think we all just won. … This is the biggest thing a U.S. president has ever done to stand up to the fossil fuel industry.”
The news came as the feds debated whether to permit a liquefied natural gas export terminal in Louisiana. The facility, called CP2, would expand the nation’s capacity to send natural gas to Europe, where demand has soared following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But it’s also regarded as a climate-heating “carbon bomb” — an expansion of the fossil fuel industry precisely when the opposite is needed.
For many activists, a green light for CP2 would be the final straw that dashed hopes that Biden would be a climate champion.
When the administration said it not only would delay CP2’s permit, but also pause consideration of 16 other proposals to determine whether they were in the public interest, the climate protectors reacted with relief — even elation. Meanwhile, congressional Republicans, a few oil-state Democrats and the fossil fuel industry responded with dismay, accusing Biden of waging war on American energy. Some even argued that exporting LNG would be good for the climate, since it would displace dirty coal-burning in some countries.
Is this helping the climate? Or hurting it? And how did the U.S. go from importing gobs of the fuel to being the world’s biggest exporter? We follow a shipment of LNG from the Western gas patch to overseas homes and power plants to find out.
LNG BEGINS ITS LIFECYCLE AS NATURAL GAS, primarily comp-osed of methane, that’s pumped from a well in the Permian Basin or some other oil- and gas-rich area. The extraction phase is rife with methane leaks: The EPA estimates that every year, more than 1.3 million metric tons of the potent greenhouse gas oozes from the pneumatic controllers, condensate tanks, well-pad equipment and liquids unloading associated with natural gas wells, equivalent to the climate warming potential of about 110 million tons of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.
Natural gas is shipped from the gas field to the processing facility to the liquefaction facility and export terminal via pipeline. Pipelines can and frequently do rupture or leak: Between January 2021 and December 2023, at least 5.5 billion cubic feet of methane — enough to power 68,000 homes for a year — was emitted from the U.S. natural gas transmission system.
Before the gas can be shipped, it must be converted into a liquid by being cooled to minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit. That requires an extraordinary amount of energy, consuming about 10% of the methane being liquefied or the equivalent of power from the grid. Generating the power for this emits greenhouse gases, as do leaks and flaring during the process.
You can’t ship LNG in any old tanker; you have to keep the fuel compressed and supercooled. These gigantic ships use a lot of energy and generate more emissions traveling the 5,000 nautical miles between the U.S. and Europe.
When the tanker arrives at its destination, the import terminal, the LNG must be re-gasified for transport. This process consumes up to 2% of the gas as fuel.
Once the natural gas is gas again, it can be sent to homes and power plants via pipelines. Natural gas does burn cleaner than coal, but that only matters if the gas is displacing coal use, and in most cases U.S. LNG is merely replacing Russian gas — not coal.
1906-1970: U.S. demand for natural gas — or methane — rises as the fuel replaces coal for home heating and cooking and electricity generation.
1970s: The energy crisis drives an oil- and gas-drilling frenzy. Natural gas production peaks in 1973.
1980s: Federal subsidies spur a new method of profitably extracting natural gas from coal seams, sparking a coalbed-methane drilling boom in the Interior West.
1990s: State and federal clean air laws push utilities to switch from coal for electricity generation to relatively clean-burning natural gas. This creates a demand-supply imbalance and increased imports, primarily from Canada.
2000: Natural gas consumption reaches a new record high, driving up prices and prompting proposals for new LNG import terminals. Meanwhile, the George W. Bush administration relaxes drilling regulations, hoping to drive up domestic production.
2005: All-time-high natural gas prices spark a new drilling method that frees “tight” oil and gas from shale formations. Fracking — and the “shale revolution” — are born.
2007: U.S. natural gas production climbs as drillers target previously untapped shale formations.
2009: The global financial crisis diminishes demand even as supplies continue to grow, creating a nationwide supply glut. Natural gas prices plummet by more than 70%, crushing the economies of Western gas-producing regions in Wyoming, western Colorado and northwestern New Mexico.
2010: Drillers shift from natural gas to oil in shale formations, spurring new booms in North Dakota, the Permian Basin and northeastern Colorado. Because natural gas accompanies oil, methane production continues to climb, keeping prices depressed.
2014: Western politicians call for increased LNG exports to Europe after Russia invades Crimea, even though experts warn this will raise fuel prices in the U.S. Proposals are floated to build LNG export terminals in Oregon, Alaska and along the Gulf Coast, as well as in northern Mexico.
2019: The Western States and Tribal Nations Natural Gas Initiative is established to open global markets and support new LNG export terminals. Members argue that replacing coal with natural gas will lower carbon emissions, though methane leaks can offset the gains.
2020: U.S. natural gas production reaches 41 trillion cubic feet, nearly twice the 1970s peak.
2021: Russia — one of the globe’s largest natural gas producers and a supplier to Europe and Asia — invades Ukraine, sending tremors through energy markets. The U.S. increases LNG exports to Europe to stem a looming fuel shortage and domestic natural gas prices — and American utility bills — jump considerably.
2023: The U.S. becomes the world’s largest LNG exporter, as well as a major consumer — with Americans spending $269 billion on natural gas, an all-time high. Several additional export terminals are in development, including two facilities on Mexico’s West Coast, which would draw from Western U.S. gas fields.
2024: The Biden administration temporarily pauses new LNG export approvals. This does not affect existing terminals, the 18 projects in the proposal or development phases that have already received a federal go-ahead, but it does delay the massive CP2 permit in Louisiana.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission grants a permit for the Saguaro Connector Pipeline, which would carry Permian Basin natural gas across the border to the Saguaro Energia LNG export terminal in Mexico.
SOURCES: Energy Information Administration/Department of Energy, Clean Air Task Force, Environmental Protection Agency, IEEFA, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, The Crucial Years/Bill McKibben, The White House.
Illustrations by Hannah Agosta/High Country News
This article appeared in the April 2024 print edition of the magazine with the headline “What’s going on with natural gas exports?”
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