Sterling Burnett agrees that the U.S. should be shipping Europe as much liquified natural gas (LNG) as it can take. "But they have to build some more LNG import terminals to take more," he says. "But at the same time we're helping them, we're still harming the industry here."
The decision to provide Europe with more LNG is part of an effort to help Europe reduce its dependency on Russian fossil fuels. Last week in Brussels, President Joe Biden addressed the topic, calling it "not only the right thing to do from a moral standpoint, [but] it's going to put us on a much stronger strategic footing."
Burnett, who directs The Heartland Institute's Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy, says he would rather someone say "help America first and help Europe" – not just "help Europe."
"Because America's got problems," he continues. "We could ship our natural gas all over the country if states and the federal government would quit blocking pipelines. We could produce a lot more [liquified natural gas] if the federal government would start issuing leases and expedite the permit approval."
Burnett argues that, to some extent, President Biden is doing the right thing in helping sending LNG to Europe … but did the wrong thing in withdrawing support for an Israeli natural gas pipeline to Europe.
"It would have reduced the need for Russian natural gas through a pipeline," he explains. "The Biden administration said, 'No, no, no, we don't want you getting your gas from Israel; we have signed off on Nord Stream 2.'
"But now they've ducked out of Nord Stream 2 … and Europe is not getting the pipeline from Israel."
