President Joe Biden just sent an early Valentine’s Day gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin and radical environmentalists. That’s going to cause heartache for a lot of other people.
Late last month, Biden announced a pause on permits for exporting liquid natural gas to non-Free Trade Agreement countries. The move stops needed approvals for export facilities in Louisiana and Texas. Basically, the government is denying private companies the ability to build facilities they would use to sell a legal and widely used product.
The United States has a virtually endless supply of natural gas and can increase supply quickly. The gas can be moved via pipeline, but to send it overseas, it’s chilled and shipped on huge tankers. Those ships require LNG export terminals, like those Biden just halted. Demand for U.S. natural gas increased dramatically after Putin invaded Ukraine. Current export terminals can’t keep up with demand.
Biden claimed the move was necessary to update economic and environmental analyses, but that’s not the real motivation. “We will heed the calls of young people and frontline communities who are using their voices to demand action from those with the power to act,” Biden said in a statement announcing the move.
It echoes a pledge he made during his presidential campaign. “I want you to look at my eyes,” Biden told a young woman in 2019. “I guarantee you. I guarantee you. We’re going to end fossil fuel.”