Comer Applauds Trump's DOE for Providing Transparency on Key LNG Study Withheld by Biden Officials - United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountability

WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) today praised Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Chris Wright for providing the 2023 Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export study to the Oversight Committee. As part of the Committee’s investigation into the Biden Administration’s ban on new export permits for LNG exports to non-Free Trade Agreement countries, the Committee had requested that the Biden Administration provide this study. However, the Biden Administration withheld the study from the Oversight Committee.

“Biden Administration officials, who religiously claimed to ‘follow the science,’ abandoned it to undermine American-made energy production, appease climate activists, and achieve their predetermined outcomes. As Secretary Granholm sought to weaken America’s LNG industry, the Biden Department of Energy withheld key data from both the American people and Congress in order to push forward their radical environmental agenda. President Biden and his administration will go down as the least transparent in history. I am grateful to President Trump and Secretary Wright for providing the transparency the American people deserve and for taking action to restore America’s energy dominance,” said Chairman Comer.

Background:

In March 2024, the Oversight Committee requested information from DOE regarding its LNG export ban and participated in a staff-level briefing with DOE in April 2024 to understand the reasoning behind this unprecedented action.

In April 2024, the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs held a hearing with Brad Crabtree, Assistant Secretary for DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, but he did not refer to any such documents, information, or draft study from 2023.

In May 2024, Secretary Granholm appeared before the Oversight Committee and stated, “[the updated study] will be complete in the first quarter of next year.”

According to a court filing by the independent organization, Government Accountability and Oversight (GAO), in September 2024, it was revealed that the Department of Energy was conducting an LNG study in 2023. Yet the Department of Energy never provided this study to the Oversight Committee.

In October 2024, Chairman James Comer, Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs Chairman Pat Fallon, and Representative Clay Higgins wrote to DOE calling for the release of the 2023 LNG study.

In December 2024, Assistant Secretary Crabtree appeared again before the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs and stated the following when asked about the 2023 study, “I have not been presented with the document, so I am not aware of what you are referring to. What I can say about the process we have undertaken is the discussions of potentially updating the analyses began–were occurring at the staff level when I joined the Administration. And by early 2023, we were having discussions about updating the analysis.” He further claimed, “a complete study did not exist in 2023.”

Read the full DOE 2023 LNG study here.

Read the 2023 LNG study analysis here.