from government accountability and oversight
Via GAO Webmaster
DOE court documents back claim of buried 2023 study, LNG 'pause' based on lies
In a recent court filing, after months of delays and disregard for numerous legal obligations and deadlines, the Biden-Harris Energy Department, through lawyers at the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Columbia, leaked a year's worth of revelations, That included three months of litigation in an attempt to avoid publicity.
Specifically, DOE has “identified 97 potential response documents totaling 4,354 pages” of records that meet the following description:
1) Any LNG export research forwarded by the National Energy Technology Laboratory to the Office of Fossil Energy Between January 1, 2023, and October 31, 2023, and 2) email transfers of files from the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy, among others.
This is the scope of the FOIA requested by GAO, and its parameters were carefully chosen for the reasons GAO outlines here. The DOE acknowledged the existence of the records not only after months of delaying tactics (below) but also by repeatedly being vague and avoiding disclosing the facts in its initial presentation of the report to the court until pressure from GAO lawyers , requiring it to acknowledge this most basic answer.what do you have?
Furthermore, the DOE was aware of this particular situation six weeks ago and again refused to disclose it, despite statutory and judicial deadlines to do so:
These delays are more than just bureaucratic laziness. In FOIA proceedings brought by GAO, in order to avoid admitting these records, DOE used motions seeking extensions of time, motions to stay proceedings, and motions to bundle unrelated cases together, causing further delays , and the outright refusal to provide court-ordered answers.
The DOE's admission that it does have a copy of such a study on LNG exports strongly suggests that the administration has been telling the public the basis for “this crazy LNG permitting moratorium,” which is an egregious lie. [t]his consequences [of which] The industry will face dire consequences four to five years from now, but they also have national security implications now.
Recall that the reason for this “pause” is the Department of Energy's need to conduct a macroeconomic study on the costs and benefits of LNG exports.
But we see it already doing so, which means that, in short, the basis for the so-called “pause” of LNG exports appears to be untrue, and this lie became the basis for the imposition of “President Joe Biden and Vice President The excuse for Kamala Harris’ latest ploy for her climate agenda. Its focus is on limiting natural gas exports. Environmentalists believe increased natural gas exports could lead to a significant increase in domestic drilling, leading to higher emissions.
The decision to impose this “pause” shocked the entire energy industry, U.S. allies… and others familiar with the matter. One of the people revealed that the Energy Department had in fact conducted such an analysis in 2023 but buried it because the conclusions did not support the preferred policy of killing abundant and often “fracked” U.S. natural gas. There are fewer and fewer things to do with gas (hello, gas stoves they Definitely don't want to ban this is a conspiracy theory Akshuly it's a good thing they do want to do that), opposition to fracking may weaken.
The U.S. Department of Energy conducts these studies regularly, and the most recent (accepted) version, the 2018 U.S. Department of Energy report, is 144 pages long. The 2014 report was much shorter, only 42 pages.
The DOE now admits through lawyers that its search yielded 97 documents/4,354 pages. The average file is 45 pages (email threads will be shorter, of course). The most logical conclusion to draw from this is that NETL sent multiple versions of the rumored report over the course of ten months. Or, put more simply: Yes, the report the Department of Energy claims is required before continuing to export LNG to non-FTA countries appears to have been prepared and buried.
The DOE was apparently in no hurry to let the public know any further details, as it took three months to provide a basic answer: Yes, the study exists.
post script: The Energy Department has so far responded to only one of four requests made in early June, seeking records of “chat” logs of certain senior officials in the three days before and after the January “pause.”
The Department of Energy and the White House appear to be “on the same page” in announcing the “pause” and the excuses. But the truth will eventually come out, and the latest confession is shocking.
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