Judge Blocks Federal Government’s Pause on LNG Exports

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on July 1, halting the federal government’s temporary moratorium on new licenses to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to non-free trade agreement countries. The lawsuit was brought by 16 states, led by Louisiana, arguing that the Department of Energy (DOE) violated federal law by pausing licenses in January to assess the impact of shipments on climate change. Judge James Cain Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana said the DOE’s decision to halt approvals appeared to be “completely without reason or logic and is perhaps the epiphany of ideocracy.”...