There’s been plenty of discussion at CERAWeek about the Biden administration’s pause on new liquefied natural gas terminals.
On stage and in interviews, fossil-fuel industry leaders are united in their opposition to the move. That’s hardly surprising, since the moratorium hinders their plans to boost exports of US gas and secure the higher prices available overseas.
But as the gas lobby is only too keen to point out, more LNG on the global market likely displaces more coal, a dirtier fuel. Plus, US supplies are a key foreign-policy tool — witness the way American shipments kept the lights on in Europe after Russia invaded Ukraine.
With this in mind, producers have been on the offensive at this week’s conference in Houston.
Freeport LNG boss Michael S. Smith lambasted environmental supporters of the pause as “zealots.”
Despite the administration’s stated concern about the impact on the Gulf Coast from new export terminals, Smith said the LNG industry is welcomed by local communities because of the jobs it creates.
Toby Rice, chief executive officer of US gas giant EQT Corp., framed the issue as an electoral liability for President Joe Biden. He pointed to bipartisan pushback in Congress and cited recent polling of Pennsylvania voters that showed opposition to the move.
Pennsylvania, of course, is a battleground state in November’s presidential election. It’s also home to EQT, which extracts gas from the Marcellus Shale and would jump at the chance to get more of those molecules to the coast and onto tankers.
But is the LNG terminal debate really going to be a hot-button election issue, or is CERAWeek just an echo chamber, with protestations coming too late?
Amy Andryszak, head of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, said in an interview that the industry could have been better equipped to tout the benefits of energy security and supply back when the pause was announced in late January.
“The administration foreshadowed this,” she said. “And yet it still feels like the industry was caught unprepared.”
–Ruth Liao, Bloomberg News
Key takeaways from day three
Sinopec Board Director Zhao Dong sees Chinese oil demand peaking in 2026 and then fading through 2030. Natural gas use in the world’s No. 2 economy will grow until 2040, he said.
Details of Texas’s $5 billion energy fund will be released Thursday, the state’s Public Utility Commissioner Jimmy Glotfelty said. He’s heard there are 12 to 15 developers looking to build more than 5,000 megawatts of capacity.
Argentine billionaire Paolo Rocca said the Vaca Muerta basin has the potential to pump more than 1 million barrels a day within seven years, up from about 300,000 a day now — with the right government support.
Artificial intelligence will eat up 3% of global power supplies by decade’s end, but could be deployed to cut energy use in buildings by a quarter before then, Schneider Electric SE CEO Peter Herweck said.
Trans Mountain pipeline executive Mark Maki affirmed that a massive expansion known as TMX will start service in the second quarter.
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