Trump’s Proposal: Reverse The Pause On LNG Exports

Trump promised to immediately reverse the Biden administration’s pause on liquified natural gas (LNG) exports and to make it easier for producers to renew export permits. Here’s what this executive action would mean for Americans and the environment. 

Trump’s Promises:

• Trump promised to approve LNG export terminals on his first day in office.
• Trump plans to make it easier for LNG producers to seek export permit renewals through an executive order, that he’d sign on his first day in office.

The Impacts:

• Nonpartisan, independent studies have found that increased LNG exports raise prices for residential American customers.
  • A December 2025 U.S. Department of Energy study found that increased LNG exports would contribute to higher electricity and natural gas prices.
  • A working paper from the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research found that LNG exports result in U.S. consumers paying twice the price for gas.
  • According to an analysis from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, LNG exports increased “utility bills for homes and businesses” in the U.S. and added “lighter fluid to the nation’s inflation crisis.”
  • An analysis found that prior to the buildout of U.S. LNG export terminals in 2016, homeowners and renters paid an average of 3.9 times the wholesale price of natural gas. Now, the average is 5.2 times the wholesale price.
  • The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis found that LNG exports had cost U.S. households and gas buyers $111 billion over a 16-month period.
  • The U.S. Energy Information Administration found higher LNG exports result in higher natural gas prices in America while lower LNG exports “results in downward pressure.”
  • Gas utilities and state and federal regulators found that increased LNG exports boosted costs for consumers.
  • A 2018 study from the Trump U.S. Department of Energy found LNG exports increased domestic natural gas prices.
• Reversing the pause on LNG exports would increase pollution, damage our environment, and threaten our clean air and water.
  • The U.S. Department of Energy assessed that “in every scenario” if the U.S. increased LNG exports, it would cause an additional 1.5 gigatons of pollution by 2050 – equivalent to over a quarter of American climate pollution per year.
  • Studies have shown that LNG is associated with high rates of methane leakage at various points during the fuel’s production. Methane has 80 times more warming power than carbon dioxide.
  • Communities close to American LNG plants suffer negative health impacts due to pollution, and expanding exports at these terminals would result in further deaths and illnesses.
    • A study linked air pollution from LNG export terminals to roughly 60 premature deaths and $957 million in total health costs annually.
    • The same study found that if every planned and proposed LNG export terminal came online, the number would rise to 149 premature deaths and $2.33 billion in total health costs.
    • The study projected that by 2050, currently operating LNG export terminals would cause 2,020 premature deaths and $28.7 billion in health costs.
    • Nationally, Black and Hispanic Americans would respectively experience air pollution from LNG terminals at 151-170% and 110-129% the rate of white Americans if all projects slated for 2030 move forward.
• An increase in LNG exports hurts America’s energy security, with an analysis from the Insitute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis finding that increased LNG exports created a risk of winter fuel shortages for U.S. consumers.