Sen. Joe Manchin expressed frustration over slow gas pipeline approvals and asked the Biden administration to be more “open-minded” in its energy policy response to the war in Ukraine.
Manchin, speaking to a meeting of gas industry players and top European officials on Tuesday, said he is pressing the Biden administration to approve pipeline infrastructure more swiftly to grow U.S. gas output and help European allies.
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“The president has to be open-minded. His team has to be open-minded,” Manchin said during the meeting, hosted by gas industry group LNG Allies. “You’ve got to find that centrist, that middle. You don’t run your life and you don’t run your companies from extremes. It just doesn’t work.”
He also knocked fellow lawmakers whom he deemed overly “aspirational” in their push to cut the use of fossil fuels and pointed to Germany, which is operating under a gas emergency plan. Germany “missed the boat” on LNG, he said, and is paying for it as it worries about short-term cutoffs of Russian gas and plans with fellow EU members for a progressive exit from its energy relationship with Russia.
“We have a lot of good, quality legislators in Congress here that are aspirational,” Manchin said, later mentioning his disagreements with Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. “I just always said you can’t be the superpower of the world if you don’t have your own energy independence.”
The Biden administration recently announced a joint effort with the European Union to help provide 15 billion cubic meters in additional volumes of gas to Europe this year, as well as at least 50 billion cubic meters of U.S. gas to the bloc every year through 2030. EU leaders are trying to get gas stores up to nearly full by the time winter comes.
Vaclav Bartuska, ambassador at large for energy for the Czech Republic, said during the same meeting Tuesday he expects most of that 15 billion to come from Qatar.
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The Department of Energy authorized additional LNG volumes to be shipped from two Gulf Coast facilities in March, but critical lawmakers have said the administration is moving too slowly.
