Natural Gas Executives Clash With U.S. Officials Over Biden’s Energy Policies

The Biden Administration is undermining U.S. energy security and global climate efforts by seeking to halt LNG export permitting and lacking a cohesive policy to help allies in need of American energy, executives at some of the biggest U.S. oil and gas companies said at the Gastech conference in Houston.

The U.S. Administration paused new LNG export capacity permits in late January, under pressure from climate activists. Those claimed that LNG was even worse for the environment than coal and any new export capacity would aggravate what they see as an already grave situation with the earth’s climate.

In July, a Louisiana federal judge blocked President Biden’s pause on new LNG export capacity approvals, ruling in favor of 16 states that sued the federal government for the pause.

Yet, the pause in LNG permitting has enraged the industry, which criticized the Administration’s policies at the ongoing Houston conference.

“Instead of imposing a moratorium on LNG exports, the administration should stop the attacks on natural gas,” Chevron’s CEO Mike Wirth said at the event.

“When it comes to advancing economic prosperity, energy security and environmental protection, an LNG permitting pause fails on all three,” he added.

ConocoPhillips chief executive Ryan Lance noted the slow pace of project approvals, commenting “We absolutely need permitting reform, and we need more infrastructure.”

At Gastech, the U.S. executives also pointed out that natural gas would be critical to support the surge of AI and data centers.

“AI’s advance will depend not only on the design labs of Silicon Valley, but also on the gas fields of the Permian basin,” Chevron’s Wirth said.

As the AI boom is driving a significant increase in demand for electricity in the United States, natural gas-fired power generation is on the rise to meet higher consumption.

In response to the attacks, Brad Crabtree, an assistant secretary for fossil energy and carbon management at the U.S. Department of Energy, pointed out that the administration's Infrastructure Bill has made billions of dollars available for new energy projects. 

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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