Patrice Douglas: Joe Biden’s War on LNG: What’s Really at Stake
President Biden’s decision to pause Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exports was met with extreme backlash from energy experts concerned about the consequences to global security and American workers. GAIN coalition advisor Patrice Douglas wrote a column for RealClear Energy calling out President Biden’s “rash decision” to stall permits for LNG export projects.
The column, titled Joe Biden’s War on LNG: What’s Really at Stake, questions the Biden administration’s motivations ahead of the 2024 election and notes that the move appears to be an attempt to win over “miseducated TikTok activists” instead of prioritizing what’s best for our country. Douglas also makes the point that this strategy may be a miscalculation for the president’s campaign team: “While a vocal subset of his party may oppose new LNG infrastructure, long-term international implications and harm to Americans will overshadow any short-term political gains that Biden’s team is expecting.”
A significant consequence of President Biden’s decision is the lost jobs and revenue in states like Louisiana that rely on the LNG industry. Douglas notes that the oil and gas industry alone creates over a quarter million jobs in the Pelican state. Louisiana’s coastal communities where LNG facilities sit will be hit especially hard – a one-two-punch for communities still rebuilding from devastating storm damage.
Douglas’s final point is especially compelling. She points out that the LNG ban runs counter to the president’s own climate goals. American natural gas is a significantly ‘cleaner’ fuel than coal – or even natural gas produced in other countries. Exporting this clean energy source to developing countries can help them transition away from coal and drastically reduce carbon emissions. As Douglas puts it in her column, “The Biden administration is robbing emerging and developing nations of the opportunity to replace their usage of high-emitting substances like coal, wood, and biomass with cleaner natural gas – the very switch that has helped America reduce our emissions.”