CORRUPTION’S CONSEQUENCES

In January of 2024 President Biden signed an executive order banning consideration of new liquefied natural gas export terminals.  It was an election year move, allegedly geared to cut emissions, and most certainly designed to win the approval of climate activists. 

The US is well supplied with natural gas.  Biden’s curtailing of the LNG export market meant the risk of oversupply, and, overnight, natural gas prices dropped like a rock.  Within 3 weeks the price paid to natural gas suppliers was ONE-HALF what it had been the day before President Biden’s announcement.

The Biden announcement/price-drop wrought severe consequences on the US natural gas industry.  The number of US natural gas drilling rigs dropped.  For the first time in 15 years production from the massive Appalachian Marcellus gas field (the "beast of the east") declined.  But it was in our inelastic, small conventional oil and gas industry that some of the worst consequences were felt.  Imagine waking up one day to find your gross revenues cut in half—courtesy of a political announcement.  Small producers, who generally have no access to investor dollars and large credit lines, had to ride out the storm by laying off employees, curtailing all investments, and…in some cases…by closing doors.

So, what was the real story behind the LNG ban?  Reports have recently surfaced that the Biden administration suppressed and/or altered a key Department of Energy study that contradicted the President’s party line that exports would increase emissions. “Sources within the DOE revealed that the draft indicated that increasing U.S. LNG exports may lower global emissions, contradicting public statements made by former Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and former President Joe Biden.” 

But it doesn’t end there. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson had a meeting with President Biden just weeks after Biden signed the order, and reports that “an addled Biden insisted to the Louisiana lawmaker that he never issued the order to freeze new liquid natural gas export permits — even though he signed off on it less than a month earlier.” The New York Post reports that “President Biden had no clue whether or not he signed a critical executive order during a conversation last year with Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who admitted he left the meeting fearing the nation is in “serious trouble.”)

So, in an act he supposedly doesn’t remember, President Biden unleashed devastating consequences upon thousands of gas producers across our nation.  His signature caused the crash of the natural gas market to a level unseen in 40 years.  Or did it?

Enter the autopen.  Joe Biden Autopen Drama Explained - Newsweek)

In and of itself the autopen is not unusual; presidents and celebrities use the device all the time.  But amid questions about President Biden’s fitness for office, questions as to who was running the country and the reports that Biden denied signing an executive order that clearly bore his signature, it seems reasonable to ask whether the Biden LNG ban was truly an effort to do good, or was it just another corrupt exercise of political power?

It is not enough that America has changed presidents.  The new president has an obligation to pursue the corruption questions.  What other DOE reports were fudged?  Where has all the Green New Deal money REALLY gone?  We conventional oil and gas producers have suffered greatly under the heel of heavy bureaucracy.  But the rot goes much deeper than an old, addled man, his autopen, and one executive order.  DOGE baby DOGE.