From Reuters via gCaptain, March 10:
White House efforts to boost U.S. liquefied natural gas exports and cut Europe’s reliance on Russian gas after the invasion of Ukraine are proceeding slowly, because of concerns about the impact on climate change, government and industry sources said.
The Ukraine crisis has underscored Europe’s energy dependence on Russia, which supplies about 40% of the natural gas used to heat its homes and generate electricity, and the Biden administration has vowed to help its allies break that chain.
The White House was weighing the announcement of an interagency review of ways to boost LNG exports to Europe alongside Tuesday’s decision to ban U.S. imports of Russian oil products, people briefed on government decision-making told Reuters.
However, the interagency review has been shelved, at least for now, after some in the White House argued it would counter the administration’s efforts to wean the U.S. off fossil fuels consumption and production and tackle climate change, the sources said.
Natural gas burns with much lower carbon emissions than coal or oil, but its drilling and extraction and transportation in pipelines results in the leakage of methane, the second biggest cause of climate change after carbon dioxide. The U.S. LNG industry has long claimed its fuel has less climate impact than Russian gas sent by leaky pipelines to Europe, but there’s little hard data comparing the two.
The White House did not respond to inquiries about the change of plans. The U.S. State Department and the U.S. Department of Energy referred questions to the White House.
The European Commission published plans on Tuesday to cut EU dependency on Russian gas by two-thirds this year and end its reliance on Russian supplies of the fuel “well before 2030.”
Some Biden officials hoped a more detailed U.S. commitment to boost LNG exports would help convince European allies to join in the ban of Russian oil imports, the sources said.
“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,” said one of the sources. The effort was reeled back amid “concerns from the climate team” in the Biden administration, the source said....
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