Last year, a French energy trader walked away from a U.S. natural gas deal under pressure from the French government, which was concerned about the U.S. gas industry’s environmental record. This year, that same company secretly completed an LNG deal with a Texas company. POLITICO’s Ben Lefebvre explains why this deal was so hush-hush.    Annie Snider covers water issues for POLITICO Pro and is the host of POLITICO Energy.  Ben Lefebvre is an energy reporter for POLITICO.  Nirmal Mulaikal is a POLITICO audio host-producer.  Raghu Manavalan is a senior editor for POLITICO audio. Jenny Ament is the interim executive producer of POLITICO’s audio department. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices