On Monday, July 1, U.S. Federal Judge James Cain Jr. of the Western District of Louisiana issued a preliminary injunction in favor of Louisiana's lawsuit against President Joe Biden and the United States Department of Energy over the decision to ban new liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to non-free trade agreement (FTA) countries. The ruling lifts the LNG export ban effective immediately.
In his ruling, Judge Cain stated, "It appears that the DOE’s decision to halt the permit approval process for entities to export LNG to non-FTA countries is completely without reason or logic and is perhaps the epiphany of ideocracy." He further questioned federal government attorneys, asking, "So why the change of the past normal practice? And why now?"
The decision by President Biden and his Department of Energy in January ignored the clear text of the Natural Gas Act and departed from decades of agency policy. Six months before this announcement, the Department of Energy acknowledged, “There is no factual or legal basis” for halting approval of LNG exports.
In March, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill led a coalition of 16 states in filing the lawsuit to stop the ban. The State of Louisiana was joined by Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
"This is great news for Louisiana, our 16 state partners in this fight, and the entire country. As Judge Cain mentioned in his ruling, there is roughly $61 billion dollars of pending infrastructure at risk to our state from this illegal pause. LNG has an enormous and positive impact on Louisiana, supplying clean energy for the entire world and providing good jobs here at home. The people of Louisiana are proud to power this nation and the world. A major victory for American energy," said Attorney General Liz Murrill.