Several of the fossil fuel executives who Trump asked at an April meeting at Mar-a-Lago to help him raise him $1 billion for his campaign are already benefiting from the new president’s actions on day one.
Among the dozens of executive orders that Trump signed yesterday was one on “unleashing American energy” that lifted the Biden administration’s moratorium on new licenses to export liquid natural gas (LNG) and orders the Department of Energy to review pending export applications as expeditiously as possible.
Lifting the moratorium, which was put in place by Biden in January 2024, was reportedly a top priority for the executives at the Mar-a-Lago meeting, who were told by Trump, “You’ll get it on the first day.”
The largest LNG export terminal pending approval, in terms of peak capacity, is a project in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, owned by Venture Global. Mike Sabel, the company’s CEO, was one of those in attendance at the April meeting. According to the Wall Street Journal, Venture Global is a $1 million donor to the Trump inaugural committee. The company employs former Trump administration Department of Energy spokesperson Shaylyn Hynes as its VP of public affairs.
Venture Global has received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for its massive CP2 LNG terminal that would export natural gas to markets in Europe and Asia, but it has not received export authorization from the Department of Energy. The company filed regulatory documents for its initial public offering last week, saying that it hoped to raise $3.2 billion from selling shares of its stock and is targeting a valuation of about $110 billion. The startup Venture Global could become the second-largest exporter of LNG in the country once its second Louisiana terminal is at full capacity.
