U.S. judge halts Biden administration pause on LNG export licenses (NYSE:LNG)

A U.S. district judge issued a ruling Monday. blocked US President Donald Trump has issued an order banning the Biden administration from approving LNG export applications, and ordered the LNG export ban to be lifted “in full, effective today.”

A coalition of 16 Republican-led states, including Texas and Louisiana, Apple filed a lawsuit in March, alleging that the Biden administration lacks the authority to deny permits on a broad scale.

The administration said the pause was intended to allow the U.S. Department of Energy and other officials to review the process of analyzing the economic and environmental impacts of projects seeking approval to export LNG.

The states said the halt to issuing new LNG export approvals exceeded the Energy Department’s authority under the Natural Gas Act, which it said must prove projects are contrary to the public interest before rejecting applications.

The halt has raised uncertainty about the status of LNG export projects that have yet to be licensed, including Venture Global’s proposed CP2 project in Louisiana, which last week secured a key part of the federal permitting process.

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