US House to vote on Biden's LNG pause Friday, White House defends move

By Timothy Gardner, Valerie Volcovici and Katharine Jackson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican lawmakers opposing President Joe Biden's pause on LNG export approvals said the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on Friday on a bill to take those approvals out of the hands of the Department of Energy.

The bill has been in development since before the move last month by Biden, a Democrat, to pause approvals of LNG exports to big markets in Europe and Asia in order to review environmental and economic impacts of the booming business.

"We have a bill to reverse that ridiculous, crazy, insane policy. And we're going to have that vote on Friday," Representative Steve Scalise told reporters.

The bill would give the power to approve exports to the independent panel the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Handing the decision to FERC, "a more independent organization that can make less partisan decisions, seems to be the only recourse that we have right now," Representative August Pfluger, of gas-producing Texas, told Reuters this week.

The bill would likely struggle in the Senate, controlled by Democrats, if brought to a vote. Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat who opposes the pause, told reporters last week he is not looking at "taking anyone's authority away."

House Majority Leader Mike Johnson said: "It's nothing but a political ploy to appease radical climate activists at great cost." The pause could last until after the Nov. 5 election.

The White House defended the pause despite some pressure from Democratic Senators Bob Casey and John Fetterman from gas-producing Pennsylvania.

"I think the American public understands that job number one is to make sure we have a stable domestic supply that keeps the price in check and expects the president to take account of what the climate effects" are of massively expanding LNG, Biden senior climate adviser John Podesta told reporters in Washington.

The United States took the reins as the world's top LNG producer last year.

Casey and Fetterman had said if the pause puts jobs at risk, they will push the administration to reverse the pause.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Katharine Jackson and Valerie Volcovici; editing by Jonathan Oatis)