Of course, plain stupidity can be just as powerful as rubles
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dumb and dumber
Biden administration drops plans to get more gas to Europe due to global warming concerns
The White House had been considering announcing a launch of an interagency review of ways to boost natural gas exports
That plan was shelved after some administration officials expressed concern it could undercut their message of fighting climate change
Some in the White House argued a U.S. commitment to provide more natural gas would encourage the Europeans to join the U.S. in banning Russian fuel imports
Russia supplies 40% of Europe's natural gas
Some Biden administration officials were disappointed by the shelving of the plan, arguing that a U.S. commitment to provide more natural gas would encourage the Europeans to join the U.S. in banning Russian fuel imports.
'It was a no-brainer to send a market signal and they easily could have combined it with a push for more exports of heat pumps, renewables, advanced nuclear, etc., to reduce natural gas demand,' a source said. He added that the plan had been killed by 'concerns from the climate team.'
The Biden team's climate goals run up against its efforts to rein in inflation at a 40-year high and gas prices that have risen $1.50 in the last year and to rid the nation of dependence on foreign oil.
Meanwhile, Russia supplies 40% of Europe's natural gas. The price of natural gas across the continent hit an all-time high this week of €345 per mega-watt hour - the equivalent cost of $600 per barrel of oil, as temperatures remained frigid and many relied on the fuel to heat their homes.
The United States has enough natural gas to produce at its 2020 rate for nearly 100 years, according to the latest government estimates, but tapping the nation's ample supply is constrained by lack of pipelines and export terminals, and the time it takes to build this infrastructure. By year-end, the United States will have the world's largest LNG export capacity, with seven export terminals, enough to ship 11.5 billion cubic feet per day.
Unlike oil and coal, transporting natural gas is not easy - it needs to be pumped from underground to an export terminal, super-cooled and put onto a ship. When it reaches its destination, it is warmed and put into pipeline.
Sources said that the administration has been holding discussions on whether it could expedite approval of new pipelines and approve requests to increase capacity at existing export terminals to help get natural gas to Europe.
Now, this is just hilarious:
Officials also discussed ways to get banks to finance the new projects, even as U.S. climate envoy John Kerry was lobbying them to stay away from fossil fuel investments.
I suppose that if Larry Fink and his fellow oligarchs at BlackRock decide that the money’s there, they might temporarily reverse their decision to disinvest from fossil fuel companies, but the operative term there is “temporarily”. They have their plan, and, long term, they’ll stick to it.
