H.R. 6, the “Domestic Prosperity and Global Freedom Act”

Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO) introduced H.R. 6 on March 6, 2014.  As introduced, section 2 of the bill amends section 3(c) of the Natural Gas Act to expand the number of destination countries for LNG exports for which the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is required to deem applications consistent with the public interest and grant them without modification or delay.  Under current law, DOE is required to grant applications for LNG exports to countries with a free trade agreement with the United States.  Twenty countries have such agreements with the United States. 

H.R. 6 instead requires DOE to approve “without modification or delay” applications for LNG exports to all World Trade Organization member nations.  The 159 member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) include all of the likely potential importers of LNG, such as China, India, Japan, and European countries.  The expanded mandatory approval also applies to exports to Russia, which is a member of the WTO.  Section 3 of the bill requires DOE to grant without modification or delay the 25 LNG export applications pending before March 6, 2014, regardless of the destination of the exports.

During the full committee markup of the bill, Rep. Gardner and Rep. Gene Green (D-TX) offered amendments that significantly modified the bill.  As amended, the bill forces DOE to issue a decision about an LNG export application within 90 days of the end of the public comment period for the project or within 90 days of date of the bill’s enactment, whichever is sooner.  The bill no longer requires DOE to approve unlimited exports to WTO countries.  The Committee voted to report the bill on April 29, 2014. 

On June 25, 2014, the House passed an amended version of H.R. 6 by a vote of 266-150.  As passed by the House, H.R. 6 requires DOE to decide on export applications within 30 days of the completion of the environmental review.  Environmental reviews would be complete, but DOE may not have sufficient time to consider the voluminous public comments on the environmental review and weigh the pros and cons of an application.  If DOE is forced to make a decision before it can evaluate public comments on FERC’s environmental review and make a reasonable public interest determination, it may have no choice but to deny the applications.