By Timothy Gardner, Valerie Volcovici and Katharine Jackson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives will vote as soon as Thursday on a bill that attempts to reverse President Joe Biden's pause on approvals of liquefied natural gas exports by stripping the administration's power to make approvals.
The bill has been in development since before the move last month by Biden, a Democrat, to pause approvals of LNG exports to big markets in Europe and Asia in order to review environmental and economic impacts of the booming business. The legislation would strip the Department of Energy's power to approve exports, leaving the independent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as the only U.S. body approving LNG projects.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters early on Wednesday the vote would be Friday, but an aide to Pfluger said later that a vote was now anticipated on Thursday.
"We have a bill to reverse that ridiculous, crazy, insane policy," Scalise told reporters.
Giving the power to FERC, "a more independent organization that can make less partisan decisions, seems to be the only recourse that we have right now," Representative August Pfluger, of gas-producing Texas, told Reuters this week.
The bill would likely struggle in the Senate, controlled by Democrats, if brought to a vote. Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat who opposes the pause, told reporters last week he is not looking at "taking anyone's authority away."
House Speaker Mike Johnson said: "It's nothing but a political ploy to appease radical climate activists at great cost." The pause could last until after the Nov. 5 election.
The White House defended the pause despite some pressure from Democratic Senators Bob Casey and John Fetterman from gas-producing Pennsylvania.
"I think the American public understands that job number one is to make sure we have a stable domestic supply that keeps the price in check and expects the president to take account of what the climate effects" are of massively expanding LNG, Biden senior climate adviser John Podesta told reporters in Washington.
The United States took the reins as the world's top LNG producer last year.
Casey and Fetterman had said if the pause puts jobs at risk, they will push the administration to reverse it.