Energy Subcommittee Members and Foreign Diplomats Discuss U.S. LNG Exports

The Subcommittee on Energy and Power last week held a forum on “The Geopolitical Implications and Mutual Benefits of U.S. LNG exports.”

Diplomats and energy advisors from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Haiti, India, Lithuania, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico participated in the forum and discussed the global benefits of expanding U.S liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports with a bipartisan group that included subcommittee members and other leaders on these issues.

“It is my hope that we can use this opportunity to better explore how moving forward with American energy exports can help strengthen our ties with foreign nations while at the same time providing mutual benefits domestically here in the U.S. with added job creation and continued energy self-sufficiency,” said full Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI).

The U.S. is in the midst of a natural gas revolution due to private sector innovation and breakthrough technologies. According to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. last year produced more natural gas than Russia for the first time since 1982. America’s newfound natural gas abundance is helping to refuel our domestic economy, creating jobs, and revitalizing America’s manufacturing sector, but it also stands to be a source of affordable energy for our global friends and allies.

As the participants voiced, countries around the globe are eager to utilize America’s natural gas. For these countries, U.S. natural gas offers the opportunity to help strengthen their energy security, stabilize energy prices, and improve their competitiveness and the overall standard of living for their citizens. In addition to creating more jobs here in America, expanding U.S. LNG exports presents the opportunity to strengthen ties with our global allies and reduce our trade deficit as well as shift the world’s reliance away from unstable sources.

The countries present at last week’s forum urged the U.S. to embrace its role a world leader in “energy diplomacy” and act quickly to approve U.S. export projects. To date, the Department of Energy has approved four licenses for export to countries in Europe and Asia, but 21 applications still await consideration.

Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Whitfield concluded, “America’s energy abundance holds great potential for our domestic economy and today we had the opportunity to learn more about the role America can play as a global energy leader. I look forward to continuing the dialogue on this important global issue.”

[mappress]

LNG World News Staff, October 16, 2013; Image: house.gov