II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 883
To amend the Natural Gas Act to allow the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission to approve or deny applications for the siting, construction,
expansion, or operation of facilities to export or import natural gas,
and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH6, 2025
Mr. S
COTTof South Carolina (for himself, Mr. CRAMER, Mr. RICKETTS, Mr.
B
UDD, Mrs. BRITT, and Mr. SCOTTof Florida) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources
A BILL
To amend the Natural Gas Act to allow the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission to approve or deny applications
for the siting, construction, expansion, or operation of
facilities to export or import natural gas, and for other
purposes.
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 Domestic 4
LNG Potential Act of 2025’’. 5
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•S 883 IS
SEC. 2. ADVANCING UNITED STATES GLOBAL LEADERSHIP. 1
Section 3 of the Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717b) 2
is amended— 3
(1) by striking subsections (a) through (c); 4
(2) by redesignating subsections (d), (e), and 5
(f) as subsections (c), (a), and (b), respectively, and 6
reordering accordingly; 7
(3) by striking the section designation and 8
heading and all that follows through the period at 9
the end of paragraph (1) of subsection (a) (as so re-10
designated) and inserting the following: 11
‘‘SEC. 3. LNG TERMINALS; AUTHORITY OF THE PRESIDENT 12
TO PROHIBIT IMPORTS OR EXPORTS OF NAT-13
URAL GAS. 14
‘‘(a) LNG T
ERMINALS.— 15
‘‘(1) A
UTHORITY OF THE COMMISSION .— 16
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Federal Energy 17
Regulatory Commission shall have the exclusive 18
authority to approve or deny an application for 19
the siting, construction, expansion, or operation 20
of a facility, including an LNG terminal, to ex-21
port natural gas from the United States to a 22
foreign country or import natural gas from a 23
foreign country. 24
‘‘(B) P
UBLIC INTEREST.—In determining 25
whether to approve or deny an application de-26
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•S 883 IS
scribed in subparagraph (A), the Federal En-1
ergy Regulatory Commission shall deem the im-2
portation or exportation of natural gas to be 3
consistent with the public interest. 4
‘‘(C) E
FFECT.—Except as specifically pro-5
vided in this Act, nothing in this Act affects 6
otherwise applicable law relating to the author-7
ity or responsibility of any Federal agency re-8
lating to facilities, including LNG terminals, to 9
import or export natural gas.’’; and 10
(4) by adding at the end the following: 11
‘‘(d) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTIONRELATING TOAU-12
THORITYTOPROHIBITIMPORTS OREXPORTS.— 13
‘‘(1) D
EFINITION OF STATE SPONSOR OF TER -14
RORISM.—In this subsection, the term ‘state sponsor 15
of terrorism’ means a country the government of 16
which the Secretary of State determines has repeat-17
edly provided support for international terrorism 18
pursuant to— 19
‘‘(A) section 1754(c)(1)(A) of the Export 20
Control Reform Act of 2018 (50 U.S.C. 21
4813(c)(1)(A)); 22
‘‘(B) section 620A of the Foreign Assist-23
ance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2371); 24
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•S 883 IS
‘‘(C) section 40 of the Arms Export Con-1
trol Act (22 U.S.C. 2780); or 2
‘‘(D) any other provision of law. 3
‘‘(2) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing in 4
this Act limits the authority of the President under 5
the Constitution or any provision of law described in 6
paragraph (3) to prohibit imports or exports. 7
‘‘(3) P
ROVISIONS OF LAW DESCRIBED .—The 8
provisions of law referred to in paragraph (2) are— 9
‘‘(A) the International Emergency Eco-10
nomic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.); 11
‘‘(B) the National Emergencies Act (50 12
U.S.C. 1601 et seq.); 13
‘‘(C) part B of title II of the Energy Policy 14
and Conservation Act (42 U.S.C. 6271 et seq.); 15
‘‘(D) the Trading with the Enemy Act (50 16
U.S.C. 4301 et seq.); and 17
‘‘(E) any other provision of law that— 18
‘‘(i) imposes sanctions with respect to 19
a foreign person or foreign government, in-20
cluding the government of a country that 21
is designated as a state sponsor of ter-22
rorism; or 23
‘‘(ii) prohibits or restricts United 24
States persons from engaging in a trans-25
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•S 883 IS
action with a person or government subject 1
to sanctions imposed by the United 2
States.’’. 3
Æ
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