New Report: As U.S. Grows as Natural Gas Supplier, Congress Must Repeal Regulations

NEW YORK, NY – While the U.S. is the world’s largest and fastest-growing producer of natural gas, the industry is hampered by burdensome and antiquated federal regulations that must be repealed if the country is to continue its trajectory of becoming the world’s exporter of natural gas.

In “The Real Fuel of the Future: Natural Gas,” Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Mark Mills argues that in the next two decades, the international natural gas trade is expected to become a $200 billion annual business and a critical fuel for growing economies. Natural gas, unlike alternative energy sources such as wind and solar, doesn’t depend on massive public subsidies or mandates.

Mills notes:

• Congress must revoke a requirement that companies receive permission from the U.S. Department of Energy to sell natural gas to overseas buyers. Currently, the DOE determines if such sales are in the “national interest,” an unnecessary constraint Mills argues, rooted in a nearly century-old law: natural gas exports are now de facto in the national interest for both economic and geopolitical reasons.
• Along with revoking DOE’s export authority, Congress should repurpose DOE’s function to facilitate exports, and help U.S. exporters succeed in the global marketplace.
• The review process under the National Environmental Policy Act must be streamlined. All 13 of the current liquid natural gas (LNG) export applications require burdensome Environmental Impact Statements, which can cause delays ranging from five to nine years.
• Accelerating LNG exports would strengthen America’s geopolitical “soft” power and expand the domestic economic benefits from the natural gas industry that already employs some 3 million Americans and adds more than $350 billion annually to the economy.

Click here to read the full report.