By Diana Furchtgott-Roth
A second Trump administration would benefit the environment. There’s no better proof of that than Friday’s decision by the Biden administration to stop future exports of liquefied natural gas, pending a future study by the Department of Energy.
As justification for the cutoff, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm described the importance of “protecting Americans against climate change and winning the clean energy future.”
Halting American exports of natural gas would result in greater worldwide use of coal, thereby increasing global CO2 emissions. Europe has already been turning to coal to deal with energy shortages in the aftermath of Russia’s cutoff of natural gas. Those concerned about carbon emissions should be fighting to reduce global emissions, which means avoiding the use of coal, where possible.
Equally important, Biden’s ban on new gas exports would benefit America’s enemies. Because prices are set on the basis of future production, Biden’s action is bound to raise the prices of Russian and Qatari gas, bringing huge windfalls to hostile regimes.
The export ban also benefits China, which is no friend of the environment. Over the past 16 years, U.S. emissions of CO2 have declined by a billion metric tons as natural gas has been increasingly substituted for coal use in the generation of electricity. Over the same period, CO2 emissions in China have risen by 5 billion metric tons.
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Read the rest at The Daily Signal.
Diana Furchtgott-Roth is the director of the Center for Energy, Climate and Environment and the Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow at The Heritage Foundation.
To read more about how Trump administration policies benefit the environment, click here.
To read more about Trump’s energy policy, click here.
For more public policy from The Heartland Institute.
