Bismarck Tribune: Strengthen U.S. energy policy

Applications to export natural gas, waiting for approval by the U.S. Department of Energy, ought to be expedited in view of what’s happened in Ukraine. It will be a symbolic gesture in the short term but making the U.S. an alternative to Russia as a source of natural gas for Europe could be critical in the future.

Europe gets 30 percent of its natural gas from Russia, either from a pipeline that traverses the Ukraine or a second pipeline, Nord Stream, which runs under the ocean from Vyborg, Russia, to Greifswald, Germany.

Russia has used its natural gas as a lever, a weapon, in pushing Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy agenda.

North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven, a Republican, and Virginia Sen. Mark R. Warner, a Democrat, teamed up to push a proposal that would require the Energy Department to act on 20 pending export permits within 60 days or “provide specific reason why it cannot ...”

The senators also are asking for a strategic review of U.S. energy policies and to expand the number of nations to which natural gas can be exported. Presently, natural gas can only be exported to nations having a free trade agreement with the U.S., unless a special permit has been given. The U.S. does not have a free trade agreement with the European Union or Ukraine.  MORE