A plant in Texas is authorized to send liquefied natural gas to countries that don't have a free-trade deal with the United States, the federal government said.

The Energy Department gave authorization to the Corpus Christi Liquefaction Project to export LNG sourced from domestic reserves to countries that don't have free-trade deals. The plant is approved to export as much as 2.1 billion cubic feet of gas per day for the next 20 years.

"The development of U.S. natural gas resources is having a transformative impact on the U.S. energy landscape, helping to improve our energy security while spurring economic development and job creation around the country," the Energy Department said.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration in a November report said the increase in U.S. natural gas production should support as much as 80 percent of the potential increase in demand resulting from the steady gains in LNG exports from the Lower 48 states.

Supporters of LNG exports say it would provide a source of economic stimulus. Andrew Ware, a spokesman for the group Our Energy Moment, said projects like the Corpus Christi facility are "vital" to local and state economic growth.

In its study, EIA found the "effects on overall economic growth [from the emerging LNG market] were positive but modest."

Detractors, meanwhile, fret over the perceived environmental threats posed by the subsequent increase in hydraulic fracturing. The Sierra Club and other environmental groups sued the federal government last week over a decision to support an LNG terminal planned for southern Maryland, saying it would lead to "significant new amounts of air, water and climate-disrupting pollution."

A special permit is needed to ship LNG to countries without a U.S. trade agreement. The Energy Department said its "extensive" review found exports from the Texas plant were "not inconsistent with the public interest."