Unlocking Our Domestic Lng Potential Act of 2025
Floor Speech
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Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 879, I call up the bill (H.R. 1949) to repeal restrictions on the export and import of natural gas, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
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Mr. GUTHRIE. 1949.
Mr. Speaker, in February 2016, the first cargo of U.S. LNG set sail from the lower 48, making the United States a natural gas exporter for the first time since the 1960s.
Since then, exports have increased from 5 billion cubic feet per day in 2016 to nearly 12 billion cubic feet per day in 2024, making the U.S. the global leader in LNG in less than a decade.
U.S. LNG has played an undeniably important role in providing affordable, abundant, and clean energy to the world. This could not have been more evident than in 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, disrupting global commodity markets and leaving Europe without secure access to energy.
Immediately, for our friends in Europe, U.S. producers began sending cargos of American gas to the Continent to fuel their economies and heat their homes, helping some of our most important global allies and friends.
However, in January 2024, the Biden-Harris administration announced an illegal and indefinite ban on new export authorizations, all in the name of vaguely stated climate change goals. Current law is clear. Requiring a statutory presumption in favor of exports are in the public interest.
Plus, the vast majority of studies show that not only do LNG exports boost our energy security but they also help maintain low domestic natural gas prices for Americans.
The Biden-Harris administration's action not only jeopardized our European allies but it threatened the faith and credibility of American companies' contracts. It emboldened Russia and other nefarious actors and created uncertainty for domestic producers of natural gas.
H.R. 1949, the Unlocking Our Domestic LNG Potential Act of 2025, would ensure this catastrophic policy decision is never made again by removing DOE from the statutory authorization process.
This legislation maintains the President's authority to impose sanctions on foreign governments, prohibiting imports or exports, if justified. Free trade, open markets, and competitions have resulted in the U.S. emerging as a global energy superpower. Lifting these restrictions will help maintain this dominance at a time it is needed most.
Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to support H.R. 1949. At a meeting a couple of years ago with people at the highest levels of the German Government, they said they needed American LNG gas to rain down on them because of what was going on in Eastern Europe and Ukraine.
High natural gas prices around the world fund the Russian Army. That is how they fund their army. It is not that friends are buying from them but, as the world price goes higher, the Russian price goes higher from the people who do choose to buy from them. We are not talking about affecting those people. The President still needs to have the authority. We are talking about our friends and our allies who are dependent on us.
I worry about what we do here in our country, but also America cannot cut itself off from the rest of the world and have our friends and allies look elsewhere to other people for the natural gas they need to run their economy. They will do that if we don't step in and do this at this time.
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Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, this bill does nothing to prohibit the President, or whoever is President, from limiting LNG exports, sanctioning China, or tariffing China. There is no limit to that.
The people who are begging, I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, for our energy is Europe, who are our friends. I do know from just recently meeting with friends from Japan and Korea they want the natural gas that we have in our great State of Alaska. This is important.
The chairman of the Energy Subcommittee is a leader on this issue and has fought for reliable and sustainable energy.
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Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, there are still protections in place so the President can sanction and not send to any adversaries. What this does is prevent a President from suspending LNG gas exports for some reason at a time when our friends in Europe are literally begging for it, and I know our friends from Japan and Korea are asking for it.
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Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Chair, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Balderson), another good friend. I am yielding to all of my good friends, but I yield to a very valued member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
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Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, I will say that we want the world price produced by what we have here in our country. The price does fluctuate on a stop price day-to-day. However, just because we are sitting on massive reserves of natural gas where our friends in Europe are suffering, where our friends in Korea and Japan are asking for it, the argument is, if you don't export any natural gas, the argument some people seem to be making is the price would go down, but that is just not true because the producers are going to produce to world price. A real problem in price of natural gas is getting it distributed to where it needs to go and that is pipelines. I hope we can work together on permit reform.
Mr. Speaker, I was actually in a meeting with Europeans at the highest level of government, and when they talked about needing more LNG exports from the United States and criticized the ban, somebody made the point that my friend just made to them and said: Well, I understand all of your terminals are full. You couldn't receive any more anyway. They said: We need the world price to come down. We have to have the world price come down.
Energy prices in Germany are three times what they are here. Could you imagine trying to compete in the global economy when energy prices are three times as high and when you have a neighbor just a few countries over that has an unprovoked and illegal invasion of another country?
We can't just dismiss that this is important to Europe as well just because they have full terminals.
Mrs. MILLER of West Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1949, the Unlocking our Domestic LNG Potential Act of 2025.
As co-chair of the Energy Export Caucus, I understand that eliminating harmful barriers around American energy exports is essential to strengthening our economy and national security.
This legislation takes a crucial step, cutting through bureaucratic red tape, which has slowed or even stalled natural gas imports and exports for far too long.
Giving the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission sole authority to approve or deny natural gas applications eliminates permitting bottlenecks and gives American energy producers a clear and reliable path to move forward with critical projects.
H.R. 1949 ends the harmful Biden-era delays on liquefied natural gas export approvals. Delays discourage investment, undermine our energy leadership, and threaten the security of our global partners who depend on the United States to break free from harmful foreign influence.
The United States is blessed with abundant natural gas resources, and our producers stand ready to meet rising global demand.
Our Nation must capitalize on what we have here at home and continue to make meaningful progress to stay competitive in the global energy arena. H.R. 1949 ensures that American energy remains affordable and accessible, keeping it unmatched on the world stage.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this important piece of legislation.
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Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, I should have introduced my good friend from Texas (Mr. Babin) as a colleague and fellow chairman, the chairman of the Committee on Science.
Mr. Speaker, the price is different around the world because of the way it is distributed. The price of natural gas is the price of natural gas. To use it, you have to get it to market. You have to have it there.
To use an example my friend from Illinois said, Mr. Speaker, that you have a real-world example, he said there was a terminal that went offline that was supposed to export natural gas. It burned, so it went offline. There was natural gas moving to that terminal. All of a sudden, for a few days, you had an excess of capacity of natural gas. The argument would be, we would have the same production of natural gas if we just shut down all of the ports. If you can use one as an example, if you shut them all down and continue to produce the same level of natural gas, the price would drop.
The issue is, there is a certain point where it costs you to produce natural gas. You have to reach that point. What we are saying is, there is a world price for natural gas. If you continue to expand markets for people to ship natural gas, you will continue to have natural gas, and they will continue to drill to meet those market demands around the world.
If you shrink the demand around the world artificially by banning the exports, then they are not going to produce as much natural gas, and it doesn't affect the price. You can point to times when there are disruptions in the supply, but overall, it is basic economics. That is how it works.
Mr. Speaker, also, you can call what President Biden did a pause as opposed to a ban, but I know from the time he implemented the pause or ban until President Trump came into office, you couldn't ship natural gas. Either pause it or ban it, I think that is saying the same thing.
Mr. Speaker, this is important. We do want to beat China. I have a tremendous amount of respect for my ranking member. We want to work together to beat China, and we are going to work together to beat China because that unites all of us. Everybody in this room and everybody in this Chamber wants America to be first. We are going to work together to do that.
I think this is important. We may disagree on this policy. I think it is important. I encourage my colleagues to vote for this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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