Jan. 21—State Rep. Brooks Landgraf says the Biden administration and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have delayed the reopening of the big Freeport LNG Development export plant to keep natural gas prices artificially low through the winter.
With the price at $3.25 Thursday, less than a third of the $9.85 that gas brought last Aug. 22, there is no other conclusion to be drawn, Landgraf said Wednesday.
The Odessa Republican said Freeport LNG, the nation's biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas to Europe, was ready to resume full operations last mid-November after a summer and early fall of repairing damages from a June 8 fire that caused no fatalities.
But just as full operations were about to kick off, the FERC dropped a list of 64 additional demands that kept Freeport LNG shuttered till the initial start-up was begun Jan. 14 on the Texas Gulf Coast.