The Biden-Harris administration violated its own self-imposed scientific integrity rules when it blocked a major natural gas project off the coast of Louisiana earlier this year, a government watchdog group alleged in a complaint obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. While the Trump administration approved the Delfin LNG project in 2017, the Biden-Harris administration stonewalled it shortly after issuing a moratorium on new natural gas facilities.
Protect the Public’s Trust director Michael Chamberlain argued in a Thursday complaint with the Department of Transportation that the decision was “arbitrary” and “influenced by political considerations, not scientific concerns.” Such considerations should not impact the department’s routine and more technical licensing process for deepwater gas projects under the Deepwater Port Act of 1974.
According to the Transportation Department’s scientific integrity policy, the agency prohibits “political interference or inappropriate influence into the design, conduct, management, evaluation, and reporting of scientific data, research, and activities,” such as those involved in licensing projects like Delfin LNG. It further requires department leaders to ensure employees engaged in scientific activities can conduct their work “free from reprisal.”
While the department blocked Delfin LNG over technical concerns in April, Chamberlain noted it was suspiciously timed—it came just months after the White House announced a broader climate-related moratorium on natural gas export projects. The Delfin LNG license shouldn’t be impacted by the moratorium because the project had already been approved to export natural gas, Chamberlain said.
“The timing of the Department of Transportation’s decision to reverse [a previous record of decision] approving the Delfin project and its seemingly arbitrary reasons for doing so create an inference that the decision was influenced by political considerations, not scientific concerns,” his complaint states.
“The Biden-Harris administration had just announced a policy for the Department of Energy to block approval of new LNG projects,” it adds. “Thus, there was a strong political incentive for the department to find a way not to approve a new LNG project.”
Should the Department of Transportation’s inspector general side with Chamberlain, it would mark a significant blow to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s climate agenda, which has focused on limiting natural gas exports. Environmentalists argue that increased gas exports could result in far more domestic drilling and, as a result, more emissions.
Neither the Department of Energy nor the Department of Transportation responded to requests for comment.
At issue is an April 17 letter from the Maritime Administration, a Department of Transportation subagency. It informed Houston-based Delfin Midstream, an oil and gas transportation company, that it would not issue a final license for the company’s Delfin LNG project. Notably, the project was first approved in 2017, but the issuance of the license in question has stalled since then.
Federal officials couldn’t issue the license due to changes in the company’s “ownership, design, financing, and operations” that occurred since it was originally approved seven years ago, according to the letter. As a result, the agency said the company must submit an updated application and wait for a new—and potentially lengthy—public comment period.
“The Biden-Harris administration makes a lot of noise about science driving their decisions, but it sure seems like their political agenda is really behind the wheel,” Chamberlain said in a statement to the Free Beacon on Friday.
“Not only do they appear to feel unrestrained by the law or the courts or their scientific integrity obligations, they also apparently believe they can go back in time to kill projects that had already been approved, consequences be damned,” he continued. “It’s even gotten to the point that their political allies have begun to push back.”
The project, if approved, would support new natural gas export vessels with a total capacity of more than 13 million tonnes per year. If licensed and constructed, it would allow for natural gas produced in the United States to be exported to U.S. allies that need energy, like Ukraine and Japan.
“Delfin’s project is also critical to the natural gas needs of our allies,” Sens. Bill Cassidy (R., La.) and Ted Cruz (R., Texas) wrote to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm earlier this year, urging her to extend the project’s permit. “Delfin has already secured long-term contracts with five LNG off-takers for a total revenue stream of $19 billion.”
Original News Source – Washington Free Beacon
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