03.20.24

ICYMI: Sullivan Warns Biden’s LNG Ban ‘Drives U.S. Allies into the Arms of Our Adversaries’

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC),warned this morning on CNBC’s Squawk Box that the Biden administration’s freeze on new LNG export permits diminishes U.S. national security and drives America’s allies to U.S. adversaries. Sen. Sullivan discussed conversations he had with European and Asian leaders at the Munich Security Conference in February, where allies expressed their grave concerns about the LNG export ban. These concerns were outlined in a letter Sullivan delivered to President Biden’s Climate Envoy John Podesta on Monday. Sullivan’s letter—signed by Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), ranking member of the Energy & Natural Resources Committee, and Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee—urges an “immediate reversal” of the Biden administration’s LNG permitting freeze and warns of the “dire national security and foreign policy implications” of the ban.

SULLIVAN: Our Allies in Europe and Asia are Apoplectic about LNG Ban

SULLIVAN: This is, once again, the far-left wing of the Democratic Party driving American energy security and American national security policy. That's the huge mistake. I was over in Munich recently for the Munich Security Conference. I co-led a delegation of 12 U.S. senators. I will tell you, our allies in Europe, the Germans, so many others, were apoplectic about this pause. The idea that somehow this is not going to harm our interests is completely wrong.

I'll give you a really strong example. Almost on cue, after this pause was announced, Russia, Qatar, Iran were saying, “Hey, we will offer long-term LNG contracts to America's allies.” So this notion that somehow it's not hurting our national security is wrong. The deputy secretary of energy testified a couple of weeks ago: “Hey, our allies were ‘fine with the pause.’” Our allies in Europe, our allies in Asia are not fine at all. It undermines our national security at a very dangerous time on one of the most important strengths we have in America relative to the dictatorships who are on the march, and that's American energy.

SULLIVAN: LNG Ban is about Throwing a Bone to the Far Left, not Lowering Emissions

KERNEN: But what is it? Is it just a knee jerk—LNG is a fossil fuel so if you pause, we're leaving it in the ground, so we're fighting climate change? Is that really the rationale?

SULLIVAN: It is the rationale. When the president announced this pause, he said we're doing this to, “address the climate crisis, the existential threat of our time.” I actually think dictators on the march, like Xi Jinping and Putin, are a much bigger threat of our time. But here's an important issue: Even if that's what they're talking about, climate, look at this chart… It shows from 2005 to 2020, the United States—by far—right here, we are the leader in emissions reductions by far of any major economy in the world. And you see China and India at the other end of this chart right here. Their emissions are going through the roof.

Why? Why are we the leader? We are the leader because of the revolution in the production of natural gas. So even if their concern is about emissions, stopping the export of clean burning American LNG to our allies in Europe and Asia will harm global emissions. That is a fact. So, even their rationale that they state is completely wrong. This is again throwing a bone to the far left during an election season. That's the sole reason they did it.

SULLIVAN: LNG Ban is Driving Our Allies into the Arms of Adversaries

SULLIVAN: Two years ago, 50 percent of Germany's industrial base in terms of energy power generation came from Russian gas. 50 percent. Within two years, they completely got off Russian gas, which most people didn't think they could do in. They did that because of American LNG. So now these countries are saying, “Wait a minute—you have helped us, America. But at our time of need, you're now going to cut us off?” As you know, in this business, you need long term certainty, and this is the exact opposite of long term certainty. We are once again driving our allies into the arms of adversaries like Russia, Iran, Qatar. It's a huge mistake.

###