U.S. & Europe Announce New LNG Deal – Very Light on Details
Depending on your news source, the Biden administration reached an agreement with the European Union last Friday for the U.S. to supply more LNG to the EU beginning this year. Other news sources say it will be next to impossible for the U.S. to ship any more LNG to the EU this year. Yet other news sources (leaning to the far left) point out the agreement actually talks about the EU figuring out ways to *decrease* their natural gas (and LNG) usage. So what, exactly, was the agreement reached last week?
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While yesterday’s news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), under the thumb of the Biden administration, has made a major about-face with respect to using global warming factors when evaluating pipeline projects (at least for now) is good, there is much more than can and should happen. On Wednesday four of the largest trade groups representing natural gas–the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, the Natural Gas Supply Association, the American Gas Association, and the Independent Petroleum Association of America–sent a letter to President Biden requesting that he push his various agencies (like FERC) to go ahead and approve more LNG export plants and more pipelines.
We’re still snickering. It wasn’t all that long ago that European leaders turned their arrogant noses up at “fracked” American natural gas, preferring to buy Vlad Putin’s natural gas instead, even though Russia’s natural gas drilling is FAR more polluting to the environment than U.S. drilling with our strict environmental controls. Europe now can’t get enough of our natural gas. While the volume of U.S. LNG exports has remained pretty constant, the destination of those exports has changed dramatically. Two months ago some 30% of the LNG exported from the U.S. went to European countries. Roughly 70% of our LNG exports now head to Europe. All in just the past two months.
In early March MDN brought you information from the Toronto Financial Post that said the Ukrainian crisis has put East Coast Canada LNG export facilities “back on the map” (see 
It’s always a sad day when radical Big Green groups win a victory over American energy. Such has happened with the New Fortress Energy (NFE) LNG plant proposed for Wyalusing in Bradford County, PA. Three Big Green groups challenged an extension for a permit previously issued for a new liquefaction facility proposed by NFE located in northeastern PA. NFE has caved and agreed that should it proceed with the project, it will need to file all over again and get a new permit–which doesn’t look likely.
We’ve written about Doug McLinko, Commissioner for Bradford County, PA, a number of times. McLinko has been a strong supporter of the shale industry for years. In a recent interview with a local newspaper, McLinko and fellow Commissioner Daryl Miller took national leaders to task, including President Biden, for their pursuit of foreign energy sources over domestic sources. In particular, McLinko believes rail and pipelines could be an effective countermeasure to move our energy around, guarding against wild price gyrations.
Yesterday MDN brought you news of a bold new plan by EQT CEO Toby Rice to “unleash” American LNG exports to not only help our friends in Europe, but also to reduce the amount of coal use across the world, thereby lowering coal-related emissions including carbon dioxide (see 
You have to hand it to the Rice boys, they sure know how to make an entrance and grab the spotlight. While attending the annual CERAWeek event in Houston yesterday, EQT CEO Toby Rice unveiled a plan to “unleash” American LNG, supplying Europe and the world with our LNG, which would displace coal, lower carbon dioxide emissions planetwide, and wean the world off the energy produced by despots like Russia and Iran. It is a bold plan with specifics.
On the same day that EQT CEO Toby Rice released his plan to “unleash” American LNG (see today’s companion story), the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) published a post that talks about LNG production from a decidedly “leashed” perspective. While Rice envisions new pipelines, rigs, and export facilities that will handle a huge increase in Marcellus/Utica drilling, the EIA’s vision is status quo–constrained pipelines from the M-U region.
As we write about today in a couple of different posts, EQT CEO Toby Rice has a bold vision to “unleash American LNG” to, in part, supply American natural gas to our friends in Europe. Rice’s plan is not an overnight plan, but it can work and it can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions floating in Mom Earth’s atmosphere (if you care about such things, we personally do not). There are currently 14 (!) LNG export facilities approved by the U.S. that could be built and come online in the next year or two. That’s enough new plants to double our current LNG exports. Why haven’t the backhoes begun to dig on any of these projects? Two roadblocks.
Hackers, believed to be “state-sponsored,” aggressively targeted computers belonging to current and former employees at two dozen major natural gas suppliers and exporters. The aim seemed to be an attempt to cripple U.S. LNG exporting ability. One of the targets of the attacks was EQT Corporation, the largest natural gas producer in the U.S. The activity occurred on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. You do the math to figure out who the “state sponsor” of the attacks was.
In June 2020, during the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), in coordination with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), published final rules to allow LNG to be safely transported by special rail cars (see 
According to the Toronto Financial Post, the Ukrainian crisis has put East Coast (Canada) LNG export facilities “back on the map.” The article says at least two companies are exploring LNG export options on Canada’s East Coast–to send natural gas to Europe. Our interest has been and remains the fact that if Canada does sanction one or even two LNG export facilities on the country’s East Coast, there is an excellent chance for Marcellus/Utica molecules to help feed it.
Despite all of Europe’s arrogant talk about rejecting America’s “fracked gas” as too dirty, the Old World imported more gas from the U.S. than from any other country on planet earth in 2021, thanks to Donald Trump’s efforts to export “molecules of freedom” to other countries around the planet. Hey Democrat media, who’s laughing now about those “molecules of freedom” with Vladimir Putin breathing down Europe’s neck?