Biden White House Calls for More LNG Exports While Also Declaring ‘We Don’t Want to Invest’ in Natural Gas
The Biden administration has been sending mixed signals on domestic oil and natural gas production.
From enacting policies that would limit production to demanding the industry immediately increase production to bring down rising energy costs, the back and forth has left companies, their investors and most of America pondering if the administration really is “working like the devil” to bring down prices. As the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas recently acknowledged “efforts to restrain oil and gas production in countries such as the U.S. may have to be reconsidered in response to persistent global shortages.”
And yet this week brought more of the same.
On Wednesday, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters:
“And I think you can expect that the U.S. will look for ways to increase LNG supplies, surge LNG supplies to Europe not just over the course of years, but over the course of months as well. Of course, that amount will grow over time.”
Then on Thursday morning, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm led the International Energy Agency press conference on how IEA participating countries plan to reduce reliance on Russian oil and natural gas in the near-term. In response to a question from a Bloomberg reporter on if she could provide any detail on plans to provide Europe with increased U.S. LNG, the secretary said she would “let the President make that announcement, and that will be soon.” Most assume that “soon” refers to a press briefing the president is slated to hold later this afternoon.
Meanwhile, just hours later the White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy said the administration doesn’t want to invest in natural gas infrastructure:
“I am not fighting with” the Edison Electric Institute, the utility sector’s top trade group, McCarthy said. “The utilities are coming in and saying, ‘We need this because we’re shifting to clean energy.’ They’re our biggest advocates on this work on the Hill. This is not a fight about coal anymore. It is a challenge about natural gas and infrastructure investments because we don’t want to invest in things that are time limited. Because we are time limited.”
Confused? Us too. After all, in order to increase U.S. LNG there has to be investment in natural gas infrastructure.
Guess we’ll see what President Biden says on the future of U.S. natural gas and LNG at 3 pm EST.
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