Cheniere Got $370 Million IRS Windfall for Using LNG as ‘Alternative’ Fuel

"The country’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas benefited from what critics say is a questionable IRS interpretation of tax credits."

"Cheniere Energy, the largest producer and exporter of U.S. liquefied natural gas, received $370 million from the IRS in the first quarter of 2026, a payout that shipping experts, tax specialists and a U.S. senator say the company never should have received.

The money, reported in the company’s recently released annual financial report, was the sum of alternative fuel tax credits from 2018 to 2024 that Cheniere claimed for using LNG to power its tankers.

“As part of our ongoing effort to mitigate our emissions from our shipping transport operations, we primarily utilize the LNG that we produce at our terminals as transport fuel in our shipping vessel operations, serving as a substitute for diesel and heavy fuel oils, which have higher emission factors,” the company stated in its financial report. 

The company’s claim that LNG is an alternative fuel baffled shipping experts. Liquefied natural gas vessels or tankers are built to run on LNG that “boils off” or evaporates from their holds. If the boil-off gas wasn’t captured and used by the ships, it would have to be vented into the atmosphere, flared or re-liquefied back into LNG."