Energy Bill Jeopardizes Public Interest Consideration for LNG Exports, Says Energy Association
The North American Energy Infrastructure Act will strip the Department of Energy (DOE) of powers to determine if public interest is met by liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to non-free trade agreement countries, read a Industrial Energy Consumers of America letter (here) on Oct. 8 to Congressman Fred Upton, R-Mich., the bill’s author and Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The bill (here) aims to consolidate and standardize cross-border energy transfer, the committee said (here). The legislation has yet to be introduced and remains in discussion draft form, according to a committee spokeswoman. “Non-free trade countries discriminate against U.S. manufacturing goods, and shipments of LNG to those countries undermine free trade negotiations,” read the letter.
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The committee spokeswoman dismissed that criticism, claiming the bill maintains DOE's authorization requirement for non-free trade countries. The bill gets rid of the DOE requirement strictly for LNG exports to Canada and Mexico, countries the U.S. shares free trade agreements with, said the spokeswoman. "The way the law is currently written, for free trade agreement countries (like Canada and Mexico) a company is required to submit an approval request to export or import with DOE and DOE must approve this request," she added. "We feel that is a unnecessary burden on both the private sector and DOE, to submit an application that must be approved, so we are doing away with this unnecessary step for projects to Canada and Mexico."