The oil-export shift was the latest in a long run of decisions--with the exception of Mr. Obama's move to reject the Keystone XL pipeline--in which the president took a lighter touch on the oil and gas industry than many expected.

For example, the Environmental Protection Agency has continually opted not to regulate carbon emissions from oil and natural-gas refineries, despite lawsuits urging the agency to do so.

When the EPA did propose climate rules for the industry, by targeting methane emissions from oil and gas wells this summer, the agency opted to go after new wells only. It isn't going after any of the hundreds of wells that have been drilled during the energy boom of the last decade, despite urging from environmentalists. The EPA's final methane rule is expected next year.

In the biggest environmental news of his first term, Mr. Obama punted on issuing a tougher ozone air-pollution standard in September 2011, after intense lobbying from the business sector, especially oil and gas trade groups.

When the EPA finally got around to issuing that delayed ozone standard this past September, the agency set it at a level many in the industry privately concede is workable and environmentalists think is too weak. When the EPA issued the first-ever federal air-pollution rule on fracking in 2012, industry executives cautiously praised the agency for the rules, saying it had struck the right balance.

The Energy Department has supported--and at times even accelerated--the permitting process for natural-gas export terminals.

In September, the Interior Department opted not to list as an endangered species the sage grouse, whose listing would have limited vast amounts of oil and natural-gas development in several Western states.