GOP LNG PAUSE LEGISLATION LATEST: Republicans are still discussing whether to include a provision that would end the Biden administration’s pause on liquefied natural gas export terminal approvals into foreign aid bills – but it is still unclear if a measure will be in the final bill. 

House Republicans had a conference meeting yesterday to discuss a path forward on several controversial foreign aid bills that would send money to Ukraine – a move that conservatives have opposed – along with funds to Israel and Taiwan. To help gather support, House leadership has floated the idea of tying a lift to the LNG export pause to the national security package. Following a meeting between House leadership and the rest of the GOP conference, a few Republican members said the issue of LNG was mentioned in the meetings – but stopped short of saying it was included in the bills. 

“There was a little bit of discussion, but not much,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole told the Washington Examiner. “It wasn’t a big central focus.”  

Rep. Clay Higgins confirmed that the topic did pop up in conversations, and that lawmakers would have “extensive meetings regarding LNG” this week – but did not go further into details. 

Speaker Mike Johnson is “completely aligned with an America First Energy Policy, which would include the freedom for our LNG projects to move forward,” Higgins said. “Without sharing what the details are of what’s coming out of his office, let me say we’re doing everything in our power to appropriately authorize legal, legitimate, safe, already-initiated LNG projects to move forward.” 

Why this is important: Johnson had raised the idea of tying Ukraine aid to lifting the Biden administration’s LNG pause at the beginning of April – and has since unveiled a plan to split up the contentious foreign aid proposals into four separate bills. But the actual text of the bills have not yet been released; they’re still being written. Plus, GOP lawmakers are keeping the details of the bill close to the chest, as leadership looks to gauge support for the bills within their conference – leaving unanswered of whether or not an LNG provision will be included.

Something to keep in mind: Reuters had previously reported that White House officials were open to ending the LNG pause to get a Ukraine aid package passed, reasoning that the pause had no bearing on near-term LNG exports. A White House spokesperson had said that the Reuters report was “not true,” and reiterated that the White House remains committed to the move to update environmental and economic considerations. 

Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment writers Breanne Deppisch (@breanne_dep) and Nancy Vu (@NancyVu99). Email bdeppisch@washingtonexaminer dot com or nancy.vu@washingtonexaminer dot com for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list. 

NEW REPORT CASTS DOUBT ON CLIMATE CONCERNS AT THE HEART OF BIDEN’S LNG PAUSE: Liquefied natural gas exported from the U.S. is significantly cleaner than most of the alternative fuels available in Europe, a new report found, a finding that challenges the basis for Democrats’ opposition to new export terminals for LNG.

The new study has particular significance in light of the Biden administration’s LNG pause.

The report, conducted by Berkeley Research Group and commissioned by the U.S. trade group LNG Allies, found that average emissions intensity of U.S. LNG exports to Europe is 53% lower than coal-fired power sources within the bloc, and 8% lower than emissions from total piped gas imports to the bloc.

On average, U.S  LNG greenhouse gas emissions are 29% and 19% lower than emissions of piped gas supplies from Russia and Algeria, respectively. They were higher than piped gas emissions from Norway and Azerbaijan, however—at 35% and 4% respectively.

Read more on that here.

…EUROPEAN GAS GROUPS FEAR FACTORY CLOSURES FROM LNG PAUSE: Europe’s biggest gas groups are sounding the alarm over President Joe Biden’s LNG pause, warning it could dampen industrial activity, force factory closures, and erode trust between leaders in Brussels and Washington.

These groups told Breanne they fear supply shortages within the next few years, which would leave them with only bad options, such as purchasing more expensive supplies from far-away Qatar, reconsidering their planned start date to implement a bloc-wide ban on Russian LNG, or even being forced to return to dirtier fossil fuels, such as coal, in the event of an emergency.

“The pause could potentially disrupt the global LNG market dynamics, impact the trust for U.S. exports, impacting European import strategies and supply chains,” Torben Brabo, the senior vice president of Gas Infrastructure Europe, said in an interview. 

LNG import capacity in the bloc is slated to reach 406 billion cubic meters by the end of the decade as a result of these investments, according to a report from the Institution for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, or IEEFA.

And while the U.S. has pledged to supply the EU through at least 2030 with approximately 50 bcm annually of LNG, there are rising concerns about how these concerns square against expected post-2030 demand growth in Asia, which could tighten supplies and force European buyers back on the spot market.

“We don’t have a crystal ball. We don’t know the future,” James Watson, the secretary general of the trade association EuroGas, said of the EU’s need for U.S. supplies. “But when there is a supply squeeze, that is when you are likely to see price increases and the associated social negatives like factory closures, people not being able to pay their bills for heating.” Read more from Breanne here.

RECORD WIND INSTALLATIONS IN 2023: The global wind industry installed 116 GW of new capacity in 2023, according to a new report from the Global Wind Energy Council, a record-high and a whopping 50% jump in installations from the previous year. 

Cumulative wind energy capacity also surpassed 1 TW for the first time in 2023, a major achievement that the group noted took 40 years to achieve. 

But still not fast enough: Though the numbers are encouraging, the report authors noted that the wind industry needs to triple the rate of annual installments by the end of the decade in order to meet current targets, which are for 320 GW wind installations annually by 2030 and a total capacity of 3 TW. 

Currently, the report forecasts installations will average around 158 GW per year through 2028. 

“It took us over 40 years to reach the 1 TW mark of worldwide installed wind power. We now have just seven years to install the next 2 TW,” GWEC’s CEO Ben Backwell told Reuters. Read more on the report here.

EUROPE RESTARTS MAGNESIUM MINING TO COUNTER CHINESE RELIANCE: Europe is restarting magnesium mining for the first time in more than a decade, as the West seeks to reduce its reliance on Chinese imports of critical minerals needed in clean energy and battery supply chains.

The Financial Times reports that EU member Romania awarded a mining concession last week to Verde Magnesium, a mining company based in Bucharest and backed by a U.S. private equity investor.

Verde is looking to invest roughly $1 billion to bring a shuttered magnesium mine in the country back online, and build out nearby processing facilities powered by renewable energy. It intends to start production in 2027 and supply up to 90,000 tons of magnesium per year—accounting for 50% of the European Union’s total supply needs. 

The EU currently imports more than 90% of its magnesium from China, prompting a push from some in the bloc to reopen more disused facilities. Read more on the effort here.

ICYMI: The Bureau of Land Management announced Monday that it would adopt two existing categorical exclusions to expedite the review and approval of geothermal exploration proposals –  a partial win for geothermal advocates. 

The details: The agency adopted two exclusions from the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of the Navy, which would only apply to geothermal exploration operations on public lands. The categorical exclusions to the National Environmental Policy Act would alleviate the need to prepare an environmental assessment as part of the permitting process. Subsequent development of a geothermal resource would require additional NEPA analysis.

Geothermal advocates have been calling for categorical exclusions for geothermal energy for quite some time – and a few bills have been introduced at the federal level to tackle the issue. A bill from Rep. Michelle Steel would amend the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to allow for a categorical exclusion for geothermal drilling where drilling has occurred within the last five years, or areas that have an approved environmental assessment, that considered drilling, and  was completed within the last five years. Another bill from Rep. Young Kim would waive federal drilling permit requirements for wells that are on state and private lands. 

Keep in mind: The categorical exclusions adopted by BLM only apply on federal lands – which means the process for project approvals on private lands will still need to go through the regular process. 

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