WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), the ranking member of the Energy and Water Subcommittee on Appropriations, penned this op-ed in The Wall Street Journal to explain why the Biden administration’s pause on new and pending liquified natural gas (LNG) export permits will hurt America and our allies.
Kennedy announced that he will block all of President Biden’s nominees to the State Department and the Department of Energy until the administration stops this hostility towards LNG production.
Key excerpts from Kennedy’s op-ed include:
“The White House claims this is necessary because the Energy Department based its permit reviews on five-year-old data. That’s their story. Here’s the truth: Climate warriors want President Biden to destroy America’s fossil-fuel industry, but he doesn’t want to pull the trigger himself. By withholding permits, the president can scare away investors, bleed these projects of capital and claim to have clean hands if the terminals close.
“Any way you look at it, Mr. Biden’s blockade is bad for America.
“Consider the Calcasieu Pass 2 export terminal in Cameron Parish, La. Once completed, it will be the country’s largest terminal. Nixing its permit alone would jeopardize $20 billion in investments for American industry and kill thousands of good Louisiana jobs.
“There is no environmental justification for killing these jobs, either. Natural gas is the reason America leads the world in carbon-emission reductions. From 2005-19, natural gas drove a 32% reduction in American carbon emissions while creating 1.4 million manufacturing jobs and ensuring that families paid half as much to heat their homes. Apparently, whatever TikTok influencer convinced the Biden administration to ban LNG permits forgot to mention that side of the natural-gas ledger.”
. . .
“In a recent letter, I warned Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm that her proposed pause on liquid natural gas export permits is an unjustifiably bad policy. The Biden administration listened to the climate influencers instead and tried to bury this foolish ban in a Friday news dump.
“Until President Biden drops this battle against American energy, I’m going to block every nominee he tries to place at the State and Energy Departments. Like the Terminator, I’ll be back again and again to stop his nominees and remind the world that he’s intentionally killing jobs and threatening our national security to placate confused climate extremists.”
Read Kennedy’s full op-ed here. Read Kennedy’s letter to Sec. Granholm here.