As forces loyal to Russia continue to occupy and advance within eastern Ukraine, President Obama finds himself with a very weak hand. Apart from his own mistakes in dealing with Russia, Obama faces the same problem as any other leader squaring off with Putin: War with nuclear Russia is simply off the table.
This puts U.S. diplomats at a disadvantage from the outset. Fortunately, there exists a painless plan that can make Russia’s future attempts to bully its neighbors less relevant and profitable.
In his recently released energy plan, Louisiana Governor and 2016 Republican presidential hopeful Bobby Jindal noted that “America’s weakness on the global energy stage has been exposed by Russia’s bullying of Ukraine, a country weakened by its dependence on Russian gas supplies.” Indeed, as the plan stated, “Russia has cut-off gas supplies to the Ukraine three times in the past eight years (2006, 2009, and 2014) — twice during winter months.” Russia supplies all natural gas to the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — a fact quite relevant to the recent Russian kidnapping of an Estonian counterintelligence agent from Estonian soil.
The good news is that thanks to fracking technology, this nightmare can end, and soon. Reliable, peaceful U.S. suppliers can stop Russia’s hydraulic despotism in Europe as quickly as America can build up its infrastructure for liquefying and exporting natural gas in large quantities. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. production of gas is at an all-time high and still rising.
Unfortunately, current U.S. law is inhibiting this. It requires Department of Energy approval for every export of natural gas to countries not covered by a free trade agreement, including the European Union. There is bipartisan legislation to change this, and the Obama administration should get behind it immediately. In the meantime, as a foreign policy matter, Obama should expedite approval of exports to Europe.
While Congress is at it, it should permanently lift the ban on oil exports as well. Now that it is clear the U.S. has the potential to become a net oil exporter once again, this 1970s relic of energy policy only empowers bad actors blessed with control over resource-rich nations.
The rapid expansion of U.S. oil and gas production for export — essentially just the freeing of a market — has no negative trade-off. Although it won’t solve any problems overnight, it will prevent Putin’s Russia from getting out of hand in the long term by diminishing his leverage against Europe — no war necessary. At the same time, it will enrich Americans, create jobs, boost the U.S. economy, and narrow (or perhaps even someday eliminate) the U.S. trade deficit.
One seldom finds true win-win policies when vying with hostile powers on the world stage. Typically, there are big trade-offs. For example, economic sanctions can apply economic pressure toward a diplomatic result, but they also hurt Americans and innocents in affected areas.
The freeing of markets, on the other hand, helps all but the narrow-minded and narrowly interested.
