Trump administration issues license for floating LNG facility that Biden administration stonewalled
- March 21, 2025
Kevin Killough, Just the News
Maritime Administration (MARAD), a subagency of the U.S. Department of Transportation, issued a license Friday authorizing Delfin LNG to construct a floating liquefied natural gas export terminal approximately 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana.
The facility will connect four floating LNG units to existing onshore pipelines, according to Natural Gas Intelligence, and transport the gas to the global market from U.S. federal waters.
According to a letter sent in September from the government watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust to the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), the first Trump administration had issued a record of decisions conditionally approving the project in 2017, but it had not yet granted it a license. The congressionally mandated timeline to approve or deny a license was 356 days, but MARAD delayed it seven years.
Former President Joe Biden issued a moratorium on LNG export permits to countries without a free trade agreement with the U.S. in January 2024. The Washington Free Beacon reported in September that MARAD informed Delfin that the agency wouldn’t issue the final license due to changes in Delfin’s “ownership, design, financing and operations.”