Trump wants to scrap Biden’s ban on a chunk of natural gas exports. It won’t help America’s top buyer much

Donald Trump is set to overturn a ban on some US exports of liquefied natural gas in a move that may worsen the climate crisis. As for the biggest buyer of American LNG, Europe, it will have to wait till after the end of the decade to see the benefit.

President-elect Donald Trump is set to overturn a ban on some US exports of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, in a boon for US energy producers. But the move is unlikely to help address the climate crisis and may even make it worse. As for the biggest buyer of American LNG — Europe — which depends heavily on natural gas imports, it will have to wait till after the end of the decade to see the benefit. The region would welcome extra flows from January as, after nearly three bruising years of high energy prices, it is on the brink of losing one of its last remaining sources of Russian pipeline gas. “The global gas market remains on edge heading into winter, unassuaged by warm winter weather predictions,” Bank of America strategists wrote in a note this month. “The market remains vulnerable due to relatively low inventories in Europe, the historical inaccuracy of weather forecasts, uncertainty around gas supplies from Russia and the startup timelines for new LNG projects.” LNG is a chilled, liquid form of natural gas that can be transported via sea tankers — and American exports are booming. In less than a decade, the United States has gone from selling negligible amounts of the fuel abroad to leapfrogging Australia and Qatar to become the world’s top supplier, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Yet, in January, the Biden administration paused federal authorizations for several pending LNG export projects while it assessed the impact of the export boom on the environment and on energy security and prices at home. The pause does not apply to exports that had already been approved.