The Biden administration has granted approval for the Alaska Gasline Development Corp’s (AGDC) project to export liquefied natural gas, according to a document seen by Reuters. The project, valued at $39 billion, is expected to start up by 2030, subject to obtaining the needed permits.
The approval allows exports to countries that do not have a free trade agreement with the US, with destinations including Asian countries. This approval comes as the U.S. looks to compete with Russia for gas exports from the Arctic to Asia. The project involves the construction of a liquefaction facility in Nikiski and an 807-mile-long pipeline for transporting gas from the North Slope.
The Trump administration had first approved exports for the project, which has since faced opposition from environmental groups. The Biden administration conducted an environmental review and concluded that the economic and international energy security benefits outweighed the environmental and imagined climate damage. Notably, the administration also banned the venting of greenhouse gases from the project into the atmosphere, a modification of the Trump approval. But venting gases was not part of the proposal to begin with.
This is the second recent approval of a fossil fuel mega-project by the Biden Administration following ConocoPhillips’ $7 billion Willow oil and gas drilling project, which the administration scaled back dramatically. The approvals of these two projects are bringing harsh criticism from environmental industry voices.
“This is a significant step toward getting more jobs for our families and a boost toward getting the Alaska LNG (AK-LNG) pipeline project built,” said Rick Whitbeck, Alaska State Director of Power The Future. “The approval proves that the Biden Administration finally acknowledges the key role fossil fuels play in our energy future. It’s unfortunate that it took President Biden over two years to realize his ‘America-last’ priorities have killed U.S. jobs, empowered China and led to increased costs for American families. Still, we applaud this action, as AK-LNG is a worthwhile project that deserves to be built.”
