I
118THCONGRESS
2
DSESSION H. R. 7176
To repeal restrictions on the export and import of natural gas.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY31, 2024
Mr. P
FLUGERintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To repeal restrictions on the export and import of natural
gas.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Unlocking our Domes-4
tic LNG Potential Act of 2024’’. 5
SEC. 2. ADVANCING UNITED STATES GLOBAL LEADERSHIP. 6
Section 3 of the Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717b) 7
is amended— 8
(1) by striking subsections (a) through (c); 9
(2) by redesignating subsections (e) and (f) as 10
subsections (a) and (b), respectively; 11
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(3) by redesignating subsection (d) as sub-1
section (c), and moving such subsection after sub-2
section (b), as so redesignated; 3
(4) in subsection (a), as so redesignated, by 4
amending paragraph (1) to read as follows: ‘‘(1) The 5
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (in this sub-6
section referred to as the ‘Commission’) shall have 7
the exclusive authority to approve or deny an appli-8
cation for authorization for the siting, construction, 9
expansion, or operation of a facility to export nat-10
ural gas from the United States to a foreign country 11
or import natural gas from a foreign country, in-12
cluding an LNG terminal. In determining whether to 13
approve or deny an application under this para-14
graph, the Commission shall deem the exportation or 15
importation of natural gas to be consistent with the 16
public interest. Except as specifically provided in 17
this Act, nothing in this Act is intended to affect 18
otherwise applicable law related to any Federal 19
agency’s authorities or responsibilities related to fa-20
cilities to import or export natural gas, including 21
LNG terminals.’’; and 22
(5) by adding at the end the following new sub-23
section: 24
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‘‘(d)(1) Nothing in this Act limits the authority of 1
the President under the Constitution, the International 2
Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et 3
seq.), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et 4
seq.), part B of title II of the Energy Policy and Conserva-5
tion Act (42 U.S.C. 6271 et seq.), the Trading With the 6
Enemy Act (50 U.S.C. 4301 et seq.), or any other provi-7
sion of law that imposes sanctions on a foreign person or 8
foreign government (including any provision of law that 9
prohibits or restricts United States persons from engaging 10
in a transaction with a sanctioned person or government), 11
including a country that is designated as a state sponsor 12
of terrorism, to prohibit imports or exports. 13
‘‘(2) In this subsection, the term ‘state sponsor of ter-14
rorism’ means a country the government of which the Sec-15
retary of State determines has repeatedly provided sup-16
port for international terrorism pursuant to— 17
‘‘(A) section 1754(c)(1)(A) of the Export Con-18
trol Reform Act of 2018 (50 U.S.C. 4318(c)(1)(A)); 19
‘‘(B) section 620A of the Foreign Assistance 20
Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2371); 21
‘‘(C) section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act 22
(22 U.S.C. 2780); or 23
‘‘(D) any other provision of law.’’. 24
Æ
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