The Biden administration said Friday it is delaying consideration of new natural gas export terminals in the United States, even as gas shipments to Europe and Asia have soared since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The decision by President Joe Biden, announced as the 2024 presidential election year kicks off, aligns the Democratic president with environmentalists who fear the huge increase in exports of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, is locking in potentially catastrophic planet-warming emissions when Biden has pledged to cut climate pollution in half by 2030.
Industry groups and Republicans condemned the pause as a “win for Russia,” while environmentalists cheered it as a way to address climate change and counter Biden’s approval of the huge Willow oil project in Alaska last year.
