CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The federal government has paused new liquid natural gas, or, LNG permits for projects right now as it studies the economic and environmental issues surrounding the industry. The hold halts construction of any new LNG plants as well as upgrades of existing facilities.
Being one of Corpus Christi's major exports, the announcement no doubt has some in the industry concerned.
Sarah Tindall is the Senior Vice President at the Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corporation. The CCREDC attracts those huge oil and gas companies to locate here. Tindall said right now there's little to no effect being felt.
"While the ban is concerning it is a short term one," Tindall said. "I believe it's in effect until November. So, we're not seeing any effect locally."
However, she did point out that Europe is relying on our LNG exports to fuel their economy.
"The big increase in interest in new LNG plants along the Gulf Coast is because we're shipping that LNG over to Europe," Tindall said. "It's part of their energy security plan to replace the natural gas from Russia."
Cheniere Energy, Inc. has a huge LNG plant along the port and, in a statement, officials said that the government's permit pause isn't affecting any of its projects.
San Patricio County Judge David Krebs is hoping that this federal government action is short lived and won't effect our economy now or in the future.
"We don't need anymore slowdowns, Texas doesn't need any slowdowns we want to be full bore running all the way," Krebs said.
Below is the complete statement from Cheniere Energy, Inc.:
"Cheniere supports a clear, fair and robust permitting framework and believes any delay or disruption to it risks injecting uncertainty into the U.S. regulatory environment. Nonetheless, we are confident we will continue to secure all regulatory approvals for our expansion projects within our expected timelines, as we have for more than a decade under multiple administrations.
It bears reinforcing that we expect this pause to have no impact on the overall timeline for our Corpus Christi Liquefaction Midscale 8 & 9 Project.
Similarly, we expect no impact to our Corpus Christi Liquefaction Stage 3 Project, which is well under construction and currently ahead of schedule.
We have been part of the Coastal Bend for many, many years. We appreciate all of the support we receive and will continue to invest in this community."
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