Senator Markey Statement on Department of Energy LNG Export Study

Washington (December 17, 2024) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, today released the following statement after the Department of Energy released its study on liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.

"This study confirms what I've been saying for years - surging LNG exports are bad for consumer pocketbooks, bad for communities near its extraction and export infrastructure, and bad for a cleaner and healthy future. This Energy Department study includes strong findings that bolster arguments that LNG exports are not in the public interest. While I had hoped the study would recommend the United States stop LNG exports altogether, this study at least lays out clear evidence for why this unprecedented boom in fossil fuel exports is harmful. I continue to urge the Biden administration to reject pending LNG export applications based on all the existing evidence that LNG exports increase costs here at home and increase greenhouse gas emissions. Our allies abroad don't need these fossil fuels, Americans don't need these exports, and our climate doesn't need more pollution - the only ones who benefit from this bonanza are big fossil fuel executives. Unless the Trump administration wants to raise costs for American households by more than $100 a year, it should stop LNG exports, too."

In November 2024, Senator Markey led an open letter alongside more than 130 international lawmakers during this year's United Nations global climate conference, COP29, urging world leaders and UN-level negotiators to support an immediate moratorium on the expansion of LNG infrastructure worldwide.

In September 2024, Senator Markey led a letter alongside more than 100 international lawmakers to the Biden administration urging it to reject new LNG exports.

In July 2024, Senator Markey, along with Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), sent a letter to the Department of Energy urging it to consider the disproportionate negative impacts of LNG exports on New England, as the department considers updates to its underlying environmental and economic analyses to improve export authorization decisions for LNG.

In May 2023, Senator Markey and Representative Yvette Clarke (NY-09) announced the reintroduction of the Block All New (BAN) Fossil Fuel Exports Act (S. 1707), legislation that would amend the Energy Policy and Conservation Act and ban the export of American crude oil and natural gas abroad to protect frontline communities from dangerous export infrastructure, prioritize U.S. consumers against fossil fuel profiteering, and help ensure the United States meets its climate and clean energy commitments on the world stage.

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