Europe and the U.S. Make Ambitious Plans to Reduce Reliance on Russian Gas

Mar 26, 2022
Europe and the U.S. Make Ambitious Plans to Reduce Reliance on Russian Gas

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“There isn’t any option to ramp up U.S. L.N.G. exports and ship on the crucial local weather commitments that the U.S. and E.U. have pledged,” stated Abigail Dillen, the president of Earthjustice, an environmental legislation group. She warned that the buildup of L.N.G. infrastructure would “lock in costly fossil dependence and harmful air pollution for many years to come back.”

American and European officers additionally agreed to hunt methods to lower greenhouse fuel emissions from L.N.G. infrastructure and pipelines and to scale back the discharge of methane from fuel operations. They stated they might ramp up vitality effectivity initiatives, such because the deployment of warmth pumps and the usage of clear hydrogen applied sciences to displace fossil fuels, in addition to expedite planning and approval of renewable vitality tasks reminiscent of offshore wind and solar energy.

The Biden administration has banned Russian vitality imports as a part of a broader set of sanctions towards Mr. Putin, a comparatively simple step for the USA to take as a result of it’s a internet exporter of vitality. Some U.S. lawmakers would love the European Union to cease shopping for oil and fuel from Russia altogether, however the prospect for that has been dismissed by a number of E.U. leaders, who see it as a financially disastrous step that may harm Europe greater than Russia.

Some vitality specialists stated {that a} additional escalation of the battle, reminiscent of a call by Mr. Putin to make use of chemical, organic or nuclear weapons, might depart the E.U. with little alternative however to bar the acquisition of Russian vitality.

“We wish as Europeans to diversify away from Russia, towards suppliers that we belief, which can be associates and which can be dependable,” Ms. von der Leyen of the European Fee stated on the announcement with Mr. Biden. “Subsequently the U.S. dedication to offer the European Union with an extra not less than 15 billion cubic meters of L.N.G. this 12 months is a giant step on this path, as a result of this may exchange the L.N.G. provide we presently obtain from Russia.”

Nonetheless, oil and fuel executives stated Mr. Biden and Ms. von der Leyen must be affected person and acknowledge that choices on who offered fuel to whom can be made throughout negotiating tables by personal firms, not by politicians. In the end, exporters will search to promote their fuel to consumers keen to pay the best value for it.

“This can be a capitalist system,” Mr. Souki, the Tellurian government, stated. “Its folks like me who make these choices. The federal government can’t inform us the place to ship the fuel.”

Matina Stevis-Gridneff, Christopher F. Schuetze and Monika Pronczuk contributed reporting.

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