An industry group argues that liquefied natural gas exports put its members at a competitive disadvantage and recently called on the White House to place a moratorium on them.
Paul Cicio, president of the Industrial Energy Consumers of America, wrote in a letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry that the group is concerned about the volume of LNG exports approved in coming decades.
"It is time for the U.S. Department of Energy to put American residential and industrial consumers first by establishing a moratorium on further LNG export approvals to non-free trade agreement countries and put consumer safeguards in place,” Cicio said in a statement.
Federal approval is required for LNG exports to countries that do not have free trade agreements with the U.S., but the Trump administration previously granted multiple waivers and signaled that additional approvals were on the way.
The IECA, which advocates for lower energy prices for industrial consumers, said that its projections showed that 58 percent — and potentially as high as 71 percent — of the nation's recoverable natural gas could be consumed by 2050.
Natural gas producers support additional exports and countered that the U.S. is more than capable of supplying both domestic industry and overseas markets. Charlie Riedl, the executive director of the Center for LNG told Bloomberg that exports advance national security goals and curb the nation's trade deficit — and that the country must take advantage of a "limited window" of international demand.
The IECA, however, wrote that federal studies of LNG exports did not properly account for the economic costs of consuming "vast amounts of U.S. natural resources."
"Manufacturing can create eight times more jobs using natural gas rather than exporting it," Cicio added.