世界石油

（彭博社）“众议院共和党人对拜登政府暂停液化天然气（LNG）出口审批的举动发起了第二次调查，质疑选举年的政治是否在这一决定中发挥了作用。

众议院监督和问责委员会正在寻求能源部和主要联邦机构以及白宫助手约翰·波德斯塔和阿里·扎伊迪之间的大量文件和通讯，认为政府在一月下旬宣布的举措是为了安抚自由派倡导团体在 11 月总统选举之前反对液化天然气出口。

该委员会的共和党人周一在给能源部长詹妮弗·格兰霍姆的一封信中写道：“拜登政府似乎正在将能源部的公共利益分析和行政国家武器化，以在左翼环保组织的要求下延长新的液化天然气出口项目的批准。”由肯塔基州主席詹姆斯·科默领导。“在选举年做出这一决定的时机增加了政治动机推动这一行动的可能性。”

拜登政府宣布，将停止向海外出口液化天然气的新许可证，以便研究这些运输如何影响气候变化、经济和国家安全，因为环保组织越来越反对液化天然气出口终端，他们担心这些设施可能会锁定化石燃料的使用未来几十年。

美国政府表示，需要进行一项新的研究来反映美国作为液化天然气主要出口国的角色，而旧的分析并没有解决有关甲烷（天然气的主要成分）有多少可能使大气变暖的不断变化的信息。一些分析人士预计，暂停的时间将超出选举时间。

众议院主要调查小组监督委员会的调查是在众议院科学、空间和技术委员会上个月发起一项调查之后进行的，该调查正在向能源部寻求文件，说明为何暂停许可并研究液化天然气运输被需要。

主要图片：（来源：路透社）

World Oil

(Bloomberg) – House Republicans have launched a second probe of the Biden administration’s move to pause liquefied natural gas (LNG) export approvals, questioning if election-year politics played a role in the decision.

The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability is seeking a trove of documents and communications between the Energy Department and key federal agencies as well as White House aides John Podesta and Ali Zaidi, arguing the move announced by the administration in late January was an attempt to appease liberal advocacy groups opposed to LNG exports ahead of the November presidential election.

“The Biden Administration appears to be weaponizing DOE’s public interest analysis and the administrative state to prolong new LNG export project approvals at the behest of leftist environmental groups,” Republicans on the committee wrote to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm Monday in a letter led by Chairman James Comer of Kentucky. “The timing of the decision, in an election year, raises the likelihood that political motivations drove the action.”

The Biden administration announced it was halting new licenses to export LNG abroad so it could study how the shipments affect climate change, the economy and national security amid mounting opposition to LNG export terminals from environmental groups, who fear the facilities could lock in fossil fuel use for decades to come.

The administration has said a new study is needed to reflect the U.S. role as the leading exporter of LNG and that an old analysis didn’t address evolving information about how much methane — the prime ingredient in natural gas — could warm the atmosphere. Some analysts expect the halt to go beyond the election.

The probe by the Oversight Committee, the House’s main investigatory panel, follows an investigation launched last month by the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology which is seeking documents from the Energy Department on why the permit  moratorium and study on LNG shipments were needed.

Lead image: (Credit: Reuters)