Source: RealClearWire.com
On Jan. 26, President Joe Biden took an aggressive step forward in his war on American energy by halting the permitting of new liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminals. This action has massive global implications, as TPPF’s Mark Mills laid out when the decision was publicly announced.
It also has the added benefit for the president of attacking primarily Texas and Louisiana, red states that account for the bulk of U.S. LNG exports. This decision comes on the heels of Texas taking steps to secure its border with Mexico, putting the state directly at odds with the administration—once again.
But the president’s politically motivated actions will reverberate far beyond America’s natural gas producing regions. By locking global supply and demand imbalances in place for longer, this decision will send billions of dollars to foreign producers and raise the cost of energy globally. Any short-term drop in domestic prices will ultimately be negated by reductions in future domestic production.
If this decision doesn’t help Americans and hurts our allies, why do it? Politics, of course, primarily appeasing the radical green cartel that forms a key part of the president’s base, and, perhaps to the surprise of a casual observer, rent-seeking industries looking to hoard short-term supply.
President Biden’s environmental extremism means our allies will become more reliant on our adversaries. For context, 87% of US LNG exports went primarily to U.S. allies in Europe and Asia. The Biden administration blunting America’s ability to participate on the world energy stage creates a vacuum that will undoubtedly be filled by the other major natural gas exporting countries—Russia, Qatar, and Iran—who are certainly not friends of the U.S….