FIRST ON FOX: Senate GOP leaders are sending a noisy caution to President Biden’s newly appointed local weather czar John Podesta over the management’s coverage curtailing power tasks they are saying strengthen American jobs and are vital for U.S. allies.
On Monday, Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, will hand-deliver a letter to Podesta in Houston the place they and different public sector leaders, along a variety of business leaders, are attending the once a year CERAWeek power convention. The letter outlines power safety and overseas coverage issues with the Biden management’s contemporary local weather coverage pausing main liquefied herbal fuel (LNG) export terminal tasks.
“Demand for LNG, obviously, is not going away anytime soon,” Sullivan mentioned in an interview with Fox News Digital. “American LNG is one of the cleanest forms of energy available anywhere and leveraging America’s energy independence is one of our greatest strengths against authoritarian regimes.”
“This issue of American LNG and the pause the Biden administration announced for no reason – all it is, is clearly driven by far-left radical enviros. It’s not based on science, it’s not based on anything. It’s based on politics and Podesta driving it,” he persisted. “One of the most important weapons we’ve been providing our allies in Europe, let alone Asia, to get them off Russian LNG is American LNG.”
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Sen. Dan Sullivan speaks all over a Senate listening to on Feb. 3, 2021. (Brandon Bell-Pool/Getty Images)
The Alaska Republican added that his letter comes after he attended the Munich Security Conference in Germany ultimate month, the place quite a few European leaders expressed fear about President Biden’s LNG moratorium. Noting conferences with the German chancellor, European Union president and NATO secretary-general, Sullivan mentioned the leaders had been “apoplectic” in regards to the coverage.
Sullivan, who serves because the rating member at the Senate Armed Services Readiness and Management Support Subcommittee, was once joined in penning the letter via Armed Services Committee rating member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Foreign Relations Committee rating member James Risch, R-Idaho, and Energy and Natural Resources Committee rating member John Barrasso, R-Wyo.
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“At a time when war is ongoing in Ukraine and tensions are rising in the Middle East and Asia, it is particularly important that allied nations can rely on the United States for a reliable, long-term fuel supply,” they wrote to Podesta. “The administration’s decision, however, creates serious doubts about the reliability of that fuel supply and will have dire national security and foreign policy implications. It should be reversed immediately.”
“If the Biden administration’s policy remains in effect indefinitely, we run the risk of effectively losing one-third of the current potential of increased LNG export capacity, threatening our allies’ energy security,” the letter persisted. “U.S. LNG exports provide a diverse and secure source of energy to our allies, and it reduces their dependence for that supply on foreign adversaries and potentially unstable regions.”
John Podesta, the senior White House adviser to the president for global local weather coverage, was once appointed to the function previous this yr after former local weather czar John Kerry stepped down. (Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket by the use of Getty Images)
In a marvel transfer in January, Biden ordered the Department of Energy to pause pending lets in for LNG export amenities whilst federal officers behavior a rigorous environmental assessment assessing the tasks’ carbon emissions, which might take greater than a yr to finish. The motion represents a big victory for activists who’ve loudly referred to as for this kind of transfer, which they mentioned would lend a hand battle international warming.
MORE THAN 150 REPUBLICANS TAKE AIM AT BIDEN’S MORATORIUM ON NATURAL GAS EXPORTS
However, the transfer was once blasted via business teams, former federal officers and bipartisan lawmakers, who famous power exports are necessary for helping allies in Europe and Asia. In the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years in the past, U.S. LNG in large part stuffed the void left via Russian herbal fuel as U.S. allies sought to wean off Russian exports and punish the country’s economic system, a plan Biden recommended on the time.
Opponents additionally argued that LNG exports bolster home power manufacturing and spice up the U.S. economic system. Fossil gas business teams just lately cited analysis indicating that LNG exports may upload up to $73 billion to the U.S. economic system via 2040, create 453,000 American jobs and build up U.S. buying energy via $30 billion.
President Biden ordered pending herbal fuel export tasks to be halted in a surprising transfer in January. The motion was once cheered via environmentalists who oppose fossil gas construction. (Getty Images)
Critics of Biden’s motion additional mentioned it will no longer lend a hand the surroundings since international customers will, in consequence, most probably revert to bigger reliance on coal or Russian fuel, either one of which might be dirtier than U.S. LNG.
“It’s imperative that the U.S. sends a strong message to its allies that it can be a reliable LNG exporter,” the Republicans’ letter Monday concluded.
“The administration’s decision does the opposite, as it will cede America’s influence in these markets, allowing countries like Russia, Qatar, and even Iran to fill the void and give them an unnecessary geopolitical advantage. Therefore, we urge the Administration to reverse its decision and move forward with supporting domestic jobs and our allies abroad.”
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The White House did not in an instant reply to a request for remark.
