Foreign Policy: Energy Is America’s Strategic Asset

Last week, Russia invaded Crimea, escalating crisis in Ukraine and further demonstrating the failure of President Obama’s Russian “reset.” On December 31, 2006 and again on January 1, 2009, Russia cut off its vital natural gas exports to Ukraine to bully its neighbor into concessions in commercial and foreign policy disputes. Russia could stop supplies again to increase its leverage in the current crisis.

Ukraine imports about 60 percent of its natural gas from Russia and serves as a vital energy transit hub through which 30 percent of Europe’s natural gas flows. About half of Russia’s revenue comes from oil and gas.

Russian natural gas pipelines cover Ukraine and supply the rest of Europe

Yesterday, the White House announced it is working on an aid package, including $1 billion in loan guarantees, to help Ukrainians withstand energy price increases. These measures may help, but Ukraine and its European neighbors would be far less vulnerable to Russian intimidation today if the Obama Administration had done more over the past five years to give them an alternative supply of natural gas.

Awash in natural gas, the United States can provide Ukraine and the rest of Europe an alternative source of fuel, weakening Russia’s stranglehold over the region while boosting America’s export economy. Washington has known this for years, yet the Obama Administration, largely supported by Democrats in Congress, continues to slow-walk permits for liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities necessary to throwing Europe a lifeline. The Obama Energy Department has received 30 applications to export LNG to non-Free Trade Agreement countries. It has only approved six applications -- and it has spent an average of 692 days processing each of them.

America and its European allies cannot wait for two years worth of Obama Administration red tape for each export facility. Republicans in Congress continue to advocate for the Expedited LNG for American Allies Act, which will speed up the Department of Energy’s review process and streamline America’s ability to strengthen Ukraine and its neighbors against Russian intimidation. 

In contrast to this approach of using American energy as a strategic asset, Secretary of State John Kerry and Democrats prioritize climate change. Last month Secretary Kerry proclaimed “climate change can now be considered another weapon of mass destruction, perhaps the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction.” He blamed climate change on carbon emissions. America’s natural gas emits carbon. So is Secretary Kerry, by his own logic, calling this vital American fuel a terrorist device?

America’s natural gas is not a weapon of mass destruction, nor are other fossil fuels. They are instruments of transportation and power that people around the world rely on every day. Secretary Kerry should acknowledge this by withdrawing his instruction to American embassies “to make climate change a top priority and to use all the tools of diplomacy that they have at their disposal in order to help address this threat.” He should re-direct the State Department’s limited resources toward today’s mushrooming world crises.

Secretary Kerry, the Obama Administration, and Democrats in Congress should recognize the importance of America’s fossil fuels as a way to promote freedom and democracy overseas, instead of demonizing them as instruments of terrorism.