Biden-Harris Admin Breached Its Own Ethics Rules In Blocking Trump-Approved Gas Project, Watchdog Group Says
- September 24, 2024
Thomas Catenacci, Free Beacon
The Biden-Harris administration violated its own self-imposed scientific integrity rules when it blocked a major natural gas project off the coast of Louisiana earlier this year, a government watchdog group alleged in a complaint obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. While the Trump administration approved the Delfin LNG project in 2017, the Biden-Harris administration stonewalled it shortly after issuing a moratorium on new natural gas facilities.
Protect the Public’s Trust director Michael Chamberlain argued in a Thursday complaint with the Department of Transportation that the decision was “arbitrary” and “influenced by political considerations, not scientific concerns.” Such considerations should not impact the department’s routine and more technical licensing process for deepwater gas projects under the Deepwater Port Act of 1974.
According to the Transportation Department’s scientific integrity policy, the agency prohibits “political interference or inappropriate influence into the design, conduct, management, evaluation, and reporting of scientific data, research, and activities,” such as those involved in licensing projects like Delfin LNG. It further requires department leaders to ensure employees engaged in scientific activities can conduct their work “free from reprisal.”
While the department blocked Delfin LNG over technical concerns in April, Chamberlain noted it was suspiciously timed—it came just months after the White House announced a broader climate-related moratorium on natural gas export projects. The Delfin LNG license shouldn’t be impacted by the moratorium because the project had already been approved to export natural gas, Chamberlain said.
“The timing of the Department of Transportation’s decision to reverse [a previous record of decision] approving the Delfin project and its seemingly arbitrary reasons for doing so create an inference that the decision was influenced by political considerations, not scientific concerns,” his complaint states.
“The Biden-Harris administration had just announced a policy for the Department of Energy to block approval of new LNG projects,” it adds. “Thus, there was a strong political incentive for the department to find a way not to approve a new LNG project.”