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Wright Tells Varney the Prior Administration Buried Its Own LNG Study to Justify Export Ban

March 19, 2025 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:04:14

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright joined Varney & Co. ahead of a White House meeting that day, saying the clear message straight from the President was that America is open for business. Wright said President Trump was elected to unleash American energy because energy is involved in everything, and that lowering energy prices improves quality of life and stops inflation.

Asked about a report that the Biden administration buried a study to justify its 2024 ban on liquefied natural gas export projects, Wright said he was extremely disappointed and that he had been reading the original 2023 Energy Department report the previous night. He said the report clearly showed growing LNG exports was in Americans’ interest, would not impact domestic prices, and would in fact lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Wright said the prior administration pursued an all-of-government approach against climate change that was not really about climate change, since it opposed measures its own study said would cut emissions, and suggested political interests drove the ban instead, citing activist pressure over a Louisiana LNG terminal then seeking approval.

Why it matters

The buried-study claim is the administration’s evidentiary centerpiece for reversing the LNG export pause: if the department’s own 2023 analysis supported exports, the ban stands as a political decision made against the career record.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright joins Fox Business’s Varney & Co - March 19th, 2025”, 2025-03-19 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-03-19). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.