In a parting gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Joe Biden appears set to restrict offshore oil and gas development further. It’s a boon to Putin. The Russian leader hopes to undermine the Western alliance structure and associated support for Ukraine by relying on the frustration of European populations at their soaring energy prices. Expanded U.S. liquid natural gas exports offer a critical ingredient toward bringing down those energy prices. Those exports obviously also boost American jobs and influence.
Sadly, Biden seems more concerned with gaining legacy favor with far-left activists. Bloomberg reports that “Biden is set within days to issue the executive order barring the sale of new drilling rights in portions of the country’s outer continental shelf …”
This will harm U.S. national interests and those of America’s allies.
True, the White House is likely delusional in its hope that this declaration will hamstring Trump. The Supreme Court is unlikely to rule that a president is bound ad infinitum to the diktats of a predecessor. Executive power must be vested in the democratic authority of the president in power. Still, Biden has made it more complicated for Trump to boost American energy dominance. Biden’s looming action is utterly at odds with the interests of NATO and Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has explicitly clarified as much. Announcing the suspension of gas flows through Ukraine this week, Zelensky noted, “We also hope for an increased American gas supply to Europe, which President Trump has already mentioned. Cooperation and maximum supply from partners will result in more comfortable prices on the market. The more gas available on the market from Europe’s true partners, the sooner the last remaining consequences of Europe’s reliance on Russia will be eliminated.”
Biden is doing the opposite.
But there’s no question that Trump is tougher on Russia than Biden when it comes to energy policy. It always has been this way. It was Trump, after all, who sanctioned Russia’s landmark Nord Stream II energy pipeline to Europe. That pipeline was the crucial ingredient in Putin’s long-term strategy to politically blackmail Europe by leveraging its reliance on Russian gas. Biden waived Trump’s Nord Stream II sanctions in a gift to the most overrated leader of the 21st century, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Biden also suspended permitting for new LNG export terminals last January.
While the Biden administration likes to take credit for unprecedented levels of domestic energy output, the reality is that the energy producers responsible for this output growth made their relevant investment decisions many years ago. You can’t develop energy resources or build a power plant overnight. The basic truth is that whether it’s the Keystone XL pipeline or natural gas development, Biden has decided to put the environmental lobby before the interests of jobs and cheaper energy for Americans and our allies. On energy policy, Biden has done the exact opposite of what he promised to do in his inaugural address. Namely, “Be a strong and trusted partner for peace, progress, and security.”
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Trump should change tack immediately on entering office. There will be points of significant disagreement between the new president and European allies. But on this issue, at least, Trump’s following of his instinct to “drill, baby, drill” will receive only gratitude from Ukraine and our allies across the Atlantic.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
