WASHINGTON — Today, Speaker Johnson released the following statement after the House passed the H.R. 1949, Unlocking Our Domestic LNG Potential Act of 2025.
“President Trump and Congressional Republicans are working together to unleash reliable American energy to lower costs for families, support American workers and energy producers, and ensure America is never again held hostage by radical climate bureaucrats and activists. President Biden’s natural gas export ban was among his most damaging policy decisions, and it was a major setback for American energy, workers, producers, consumers, partners, and allies,” Speaker Johnson said. “The House passage of the Unlocking Our Domestic LNG Potential Act helps guarantee that a ban is never placed on American LNG exports again, depoliticizes the permitting process and unleashes American energy producers from the bonds of the Biden-era subversive bureaucratic overreach. This legislation codifies more of President Trump’s executive orders, advances Republicans’ energy dominance agenda, and returns to regular order on LNG exports so America can once again be a leader in the global market.”
“By unleashing American energy, House Republicans are leading the way to support our nation’s energy security, strengthen our grid, and lower prices for hard-working families,” Chairman Guthrie said. “The REFINER Act will help to ensure our refineries are being used effectively to produce the oil, gas, and other critical feedstocks we rely upon while the Unlocking our Domestic LNG Potential Act expands American energy production and infrastructure by removing U.S. LNG export restrictions, which the Biden-Harris Administration politicized and abused.”
“Today’s House passage of my Unlocking Our Domestic LNG Potential Act is another major victory in achieving American energy dominance. My legislation reforms the broken, politically weaponized approval process so we can streamline permitting for exporting LNG once and for all,” Congressman Pfluger said. “It’s simple: Exporting American LNG strengthens our economy, stabilizes prices, drives much-needed investment in energy infrastructure, and bolsters the energy security of our global partners. I thank my colleagues for supporting this critical legislation, and I urge its swift passage in the Senate under Senator Scott’s strong leadership.”
Background:
- Under the four years of President Biden, not a single new LNG export authorization was issued as a result of a misguided and politically motivated ban of natural gas exports.
- Since President Trump took office in January 2025, his administration has issued at least three final LNG export authorizations, and U.S. developers have made final investment decisions on six LNG export projects worth more than $70 billion.
- H.R. 1949 depoliticizes the export of American liquefied natural gas (LNG) by eliminating the requirement for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to authorize its export and instead giving the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) sole authority over the approval process.
- Under this legislation, FERC would have the exclusive authority to approve or deny any application for authorization for the siting, construction, expansion, or operation of a facility to export natural gas from the U.S. to a foreign country or import natural gas from a foreign country.
- Nothing in this legislation limits the authority of the President to impose sanctions on a foreign government, including a country that is designated as a state sponsor of terrorism, to prohibit imports or exports.
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