Joe Biden makes the gas giants tremble to give assurances to voters sensitive to the defense of the environment. Nine months before the November 5 election, the President of the United States announced, on January 26, that he was suspending all authorization of new terminals for the production of liquefied natural gas intended for export. “While MAGA Republicans [Make America Great Again, les partisans de Donald Trump] deliberately deny the urgency of the climate crisis, condemning Americans to a dangerous futurehe wrote in a press release, my administration will not be complacent. »
Emotion from the general director of Shell, Wael Sawan. This decision will “eroding trust in the long term” in an industry which, according to him, plays a dual role: contributing to energy security, particularly in Europe after the closure of Russian gas pipelines; and participate in the green transition, since it replaces coal. Hard to accept for the boss of a group whose half of 2023 profits ($28 billion) come from gas; and for many American, European and Asian industrialists, who wrote a joint letter to Mr. Biden to ask him to reverse this moratorium.
Unsurprisingly, candidate Donald Trump has promised to repeal it immediately if re-elected. “President Biden Empowers Russia”, also counterattacked on X the Republican President of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, elected from Louisiana, known for feeding on subsidies from the oil industry and denying the human origin of global warming. It is precisely in his state that the giant Calcasieu Pass 2 liquefaction terminal project will be put on hold.
Rejoining the Paris Agreement
Mr. Biden’s environmental record will be at the heart of the campaign, even if purchasing power remains Americans’ priority. John Kerry, climate ambassador since 2021, will work on this after announcing his departure from the government. This assessment is not insignificant: reintegration of the Paris agreement, enormous aid (350 billion euros) devoted to decarbonization, abandonment of the Canada-Gulf of Mexico Keystone XL oil pipeline, etc.
He is not without blemish either. In 2022, Biden asked Big Oil and Saudi Arabia to pump more black gold to lower the price of a barrel, once again authorizing drilling on federal lands that he had banned a year earlier. In the United States, reducing dependence on hydrocarbons is a titanic task undertaken at each election.