As winter approaches alongside soaring gas prices, many people across Europe are facing the stark choice between heating and eating. But for the Kremlin and boardrooms in Texas, this European misery is an opportunity to entrench the region’s dependence on imported gas. Locking Europe further into gas would not just have disastrous consequences for the climate, it would ensure Europe remains reliant on a crisis-prone energy source for decades to come.
Since coming to office, President Biden has laid claim to the climate fight – setting out an ambitious domestic agenda, whilst challenging world leaders to do the same. But new research from Global Witness shows that the US is on track to become the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in just two years’ time. Fuelled by an expected boom in exports over the next decade, the US will overtake Australia and Qatar for LNG exports by 2023, with an increase of 121% by 2030 according to the energy consultancy Rystad Energy.
This projected rise in gas exports, combined with the European crisis, has fossil fuel companies in the US seeing dollar signs. Tellurian, which is in the process of building a $15bn LNG export terminal, described the prospect of energy poverty in Europe as a “good thing for American LNG”. A recent industry editorial in OilPrice.com characterised Europe as “ripe for the taking”, whilst an industry analyst told the Wall Street Journal that the crisis presented “an opportunity”.
