Foolish LNG export pause
Regarding “Biden’s LNG export pause is more than a cynical political strategy (Editorial),” (Feb. 26): For an editorial board located in the energy capital of the world, you clearly lack an understanding and appreciation of world energy markets, and the impact on climate. President Joe Biden’s decision to pause LNG permits will have no impact on climate change and will only serve to reduce American jobs while increasing jobs and investments abroad.
Qatar, one of the leading global suppliers of LNG, has already announced expansion efforts after Biden’s misguided pause. In an opposite move early in his administration, Biden reversed Trump’s sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2, greenlighting Russian gas to Europe. Events in Ukraine ultimately reversed that, but that has led Germany to continue to burn excessive amounts of coal, which is far worse for the environment than natural gas, be it via pipeline or LNG.
Unless we embrace nuclear energy — something Germany foolishly abandoned, leading to even more coal usage there — natural gas (and maybe even hydrogen) will be a leading player in the global market for electricity generation for decades to come. Biden’s foolish pause on LNG only serves to hurt Americans, which is par for the course, given his administration’s “America Last” policies, like its failure at the border. Maybe come November, much to your consternation, we can return to policies that put Americans and America’s interest first. Tim Graney, Katy
Often, when privileged folks become aware of the climate crisis, they freak out. They feel the world is out of control. They can’t imagine everyone coming together to end the climate crisis. Some shrug and try to forget about it, while others passionately build the climate movement.
We are coming together to end the climate crisis. A recent Yale survey found that 28% of Americans are alarmed and another 29% are concerned. Our pressure persuaded Biden to pause LNG permits. Other accomplishments include accelerating the energy transition, declining global per capita emissions and population stabilization expected by 2050.
Other countries are doing more. The Climate Change Performance Index rated U.S. accomplishments as overall very low, ranking them in 57th place out of 67 countries.
Do the LNG entrepreneurs want to carry out their plans so badly they will risk their assets becoming stranded? Is it right to allow them to get their way at the expense of our children’s future prosperity? Nan Hildreth, Houston
Enough of this environmental extremism pushed by Biden and now the editorial board! How much longer will the public be snookered by two grossly hypocritical politicians by the names of Al Gore and John Kerry? Developing countries are going to continue to use fossil fuels in large quantities, regardless of what our lying politicians say or do, because they are not going to wreck their growing economies by switching to so-called “clean energy.”
We should be producing more LNG, not less. I assume the Chronicle staff doesn’t care what happens to the oil and gas industry as long as everyone is driving an electric vehicle by 2030, even though EVs struggle to function in more than half the country because of cold weather. It’s ludicrous to placate the far-left environmental extremists in and out of government whose goal seems to be not only to destroy the industry which is such an integral factor in the Texas economy but also to do further harm to our national security. Eric Johnson, Houston