Biden Admin Affirms Trump-Era Decision to Export Natural Gas From Alaska

The U.S. Department of Energy building is seen in Washington on July 22, 2019. (Alastair Pike/AFP via Getty Images)

The Department of Energy (DOE) on April 13 affirmed a Trump-era decision to export liquified natural gas (LNG) from a facility in Alaska.

Under the Trump administration, in 2020, a company called Alaska LNG was authorized to export LNG to any country with which the United States hasn’t entered into a free trade agreement (FTA).

In a supplemental record of the decision (pdf) issued by the DOE on April 13, Biden administration officials reaffirmed the original authorization in 2020. However, they also amended the project to include more restrictions intended to protect the environment.

The decision on April 13 comes after the Sierra Club, an organization that seeks to “fight for environmental and social justice,” in September 2020 filed a Request for Rehearing over the matter.

The department had agreed to the request to look further into the project’s environmental impacts, after which it would either reaffirm, modify, or set aside the Trump-era authorization.

“Upon review, DOE finds that the environmental impacts presented ... are not sufficient to alter DOE’s determination ... that exports of LNG from the proposed Alaska LNG Project to non-FTA countries are not inconsistent with the public interest,” the department stated.

One Change

As such, the department affirmed the original Trump-era order but with one modification that was recommended by the Sierra Club: Alaska LNG is required to certify each month that the natural gas produced for export in LNG form “did not result in the venting of byproduct carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, unless required for emergency, maintenance, or operational exigencies and in compliance with the FERC [Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] Order for the Alaska LNG Project.”

“DOE believes that this venting prohibition will reduce emissions of [greenhouse gases] from the Alaska LNG Project beyond what may have occurred under the Alaska LNG Order,” the department stated.

Otherwise, other parts of the authorization remain the same.

The LNG pipeline and export project was estimated in June 2020 to cost $38.7 billion. It was first proposed in 2014 by the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. (AGDC), which was tasked with maximizing the state’s natural gas reserves by the Alaskan legislature and is leading the project.

Construction of the Alaska LNG project was authorized in May 2020 by FERC. According to plans, the project would include a liquefaction facility in the Nikiski area of the Kenai Peninsula in south-central Alaska, a natural gas treatment plant on the North Slope of Alaska to produce natural gas, and an 800-mile pipeline to carry the natural gas from the North Slope to the liquefaction facility.

While AGDC has been seeking buyers for exports, it hasn’t reached a final decision on whether to start construction, an Energy Department spokesperson told the Anchorage Daily News.

“Alaska LNG is authorized to export this LNG in a volume equivalent to 929 billion cubic feet per year (Bcf/yr) of natural gas (2.55 Bcf per day), by vessel from a liquefaction facility ... in the Nikiski area of the Kenai Peninsula in south-central Alaska,” the DOE’s document reads.

Altogether, Alaska LNG “is authorized to export LNG from the Project for a total of 33 years—a 30-year export term, with an additional three-year Make-Up Period to export any LNG that it was unable to export during the 30-year export term.”

The latest move comes a month after the Biden administration approved the $8 billion Willow oil field development project to allow the company ConocoPhillips to drill for oil over three decades.

It also comes a year after the Biden administration expanded exports of LNG to Europe. President Joe Biden announced an agreement in March 2022 that committed the U.S. industry to supply 15 billion cubic meters more of LNG to Europe for the remainder of the year.