Helping to deliver the message was a coalition of White House

fuel exports despite climate worries

WASHINGTON (AP) Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s keynote speech at the World Gas Conference in June opened with a marching band and ended with an exhibition by the Harlem Globetrotters. It was a spectacle befitting the industry symposium. “We’re sharing our energy bounty with the world,” Perry gushed from a stage at the Washington Convention Center.

cheap Canada Goose Long undervalued, natural gas canada goose coats was once burned off indiscriminately as an unwanted byproduct of oil drilling. But the fuel’s fortunes have changed. Cooled to minus 162 degrees Celsius, natural gas condenses into a liquid marketed as a clean alternative to coal. has emerged as a top canada goose clearance producer of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, selling shiploads of the commodity to countries such as China, which are seeking low carbon energy sources to combat climate change. cheap Canada Goose

buy canada goose jacket cheap Natural gas, it turns out, isn’t so great for the climate, but that hasn’t stopped America from sending its fossil fuels abroad. Since Donald Trump took office in 2017, exports of LNG and crude oil have surged, rivaling the likes of Saudi Arabia and Russia. To achieve what it calls “energy dominance,” the Trump administration has taken its cues from an unlikely source: its predecessor. buy canada goose jacket cheap

canada goose coats on sale When Perry hawked LNG and coal to India in April, he was advancing a dialogue the Department of Energy began under Barack Obama in 2014. Leaked administration plans for a “central institution” to promote “clean and advanced fossil fuels” abroad could combine several Obama era initiatives. canada goose coats on sale

Canada Goose Outlet Compared to Trump, Obama is regarded as an environmental champion. But history paints a more complicated picture. As the young senator promised “change we can believe in” during the 2008 presidential campaign, change was also sweeping American oilfields. Advances in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking a way of recovering oil and gas from tight rock called shale created a glut. Industry responded by pitching fossil fuel exports as a “win win” that would benefit consumers and enhance canada goose clearance sale American power. Helping to deliver the message was a coalition of White House advisers: academics such as Columbia University’s Jason Bordoff, energy gurus such as Daniel Yergin, and national security experts such as John Deutch all with links to firms profiting from the boom. Canada Goose Outlet

Canada Goose Parka Leading the charge within government was then Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, a nuclear physicist with longstanding ties to the oil and gas industry and an enthusiastic proponent of natural gas. Under his watch, the Energy Department moved swiftly to foster LNG exports in 2013 before shifting its focus to decades old restrictions on the export of Canada Goose Jackets crude oil. Days after the Paris climate agreement was reached in 2015, Obama signed a budget bill to keep the federal government running; slipped inside was a provision allowing crude oil to be sold freely for the Canada Goose online first time since 1975. The move was praised by an alliance of 16 companies, most of which are now capitalizing on an export driven boom in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico. Canada Goose Parka

cheap canada goose uk What’s good for corporate profits, however, may not be good for the planet. A growing body of research suggests natural gas isn’t the climate panacea many promised it would be, with mounting concerns over its main component: methane, a greenhouse gas roughly 86 times more potent in the short term than carbon dioxide. has become not only the world’s largest natural gas producer but also a top exporter of oil a fuel that remains among the most harmful for the climate and public health. As energy exports climb, so too does global consumption of fossil fuels, drawing billions in infrastructure investment that some argue tilts the world away from renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar. cheap canada goose uk

buy canada goose jacket This story is part of a collaboration between the Center for Public Integrity, the Texas Tribune, The Associated Press and Newsy. buy canada goose jacket

As Obama’s energy czar, Moniz spearheaded the administration’s “all of the above” policy, which endorsed drilling alongside renewable energy. When he became secretary in canada goose store 2013, among his top priorities was fast tracking approvals for natural gas exports as advocated by industry lobbying groups such as the American Petroleum Institute.

Canada Goose Online The Trump White House has taken the idea a step further. In August, the Energy Department announced it would automatically approve small volume exports of LNG. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, a booster of increased drilling on federal lands and offshore, has called America’s energy supremacy a moral imperative. Canada Goose Online

Moniz, now in the private sector, has continued to follow an “all of the above” approach. His Washington office houses his nonprofit think tank, Energy Futures Initiatives, and his for profit firm, EJM Associates LLC. The two organizations were launched on the same day last year. EJM receives staff and administrative support from EFI. Both share an office with The Scowcroft Group, a consultancy founded by former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft that specializes in emerging markets like China and whose clients include oil and gas companies.

Scowcroft and Moniz aren’t just office mates. According to canada goose outlet their websites, their Canada Goose sale for profit firms are engaged in a three way partnership with McLarty Associates, a trade consultancy located in the same building. A press release describes EJM as a Canada Goose Outlet strategic energy advisor for McLarty Associates clients.

canada goose clearance Headed by Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty III, a Clinton White House official and former natural gas executive, the firm has represented LNG investors Chevron and General Electric. McLarty’s lobbying division has advocated for Shell on natural gas matters and canada goose black friday sale a company behind a pipeline with ties to the Kremlin. Brent Scowcroft and Mack McLarty sit on EFI’s advisory board. canada goose clearance

Canada Goose Coats On Sale During a recent interview with the Center for Public Integrity and Newsy, Moniz balked at the suggestion that his ties to the fossil fuel industry could pose a conflict of interest. He emphasized his climate credentials, saying, “I have been a champion of renewables for a long, long time.” Canada Goose Coats On Sale

Responding to follow up questions, a spokesman wrote in a seven page statement that Moniz “has no financial relationships with canada goose coats on sale oil and gas producers,” buy canada goose jacket cheap and that neither EFI nor EJM engages in “lobbying activities or foreign government representation.” It also said, “EJM has had no discussions with McLarty on LNG export issues,” but did not include a similar qualification for The Scowcroft Group. “To date, there are no joint projects with either (Scowcroft or McLarty),” the statement added.

canadian goose jacket Representatives of Scowcroft and McLarty declined to comment. canadian goose jacket

canada goose coats Moniz’s oil and gas ties go back years. When named energy secretary, he terminated his work as a paid consultant for companies such as BP. At MIT, Moniz ran a think tank, largely funded by the oil and gas industry, which published one of the earliest and most influential reports on natural gas. First publicized in interim form in June 2010, it affirmed the fuel as a “bridge” to ease the country’s transition from coal. canada goose coats

The study’s major sponsor was the American Clean Skies Foundation, a group created by Aubrey McClendon then CEO of Chesapeake Energy as part Canada Goose Parka of a multimillion dollar effort to market natural gas as a climate solution.

Canada Goose sale In his statement, Moniz’s spokesman said the study has “stood the test of time” and emphasized Moniz’s support for an Obama era rule that sought to rein in leaks of methane from oil and gas sites. That regulation has become the latest target of the Trump administration. Canada Goose sale

canada goose uk black friday The MIT study was cited in a slew of other reports, including one from an Energy Department committee in 2011. Chairing the committee was John Deutch, a former CIA director and then board member of Cheniere, a Houston based company that later became the first to export LNG. Yergin sat on the advisory board of Moniz’s MIT think tank; Moniz was a private consultant for IHS Markit. Deutch did not respond to requests for comment, but a representative of Yergin’s noted that IHS Markit is “solely responsible” for the contents of its studies, regardless of cheap Canada Goose funding. canada goose uk black friday

The studies helped buoy the idea of natural gas as an answer to the planet’s climate woes, even though early research hinted that methane could derail that narrative. A 2018 study sponsored by the al Defense Fund a green group that has partnered with the oil and gas industry to investigate leaks of the greenhouse gas has only furthered doubts. The study found methane emissions were 60 percent higher than previously estimated. alists argue the expansive buildout of natural gas infrastructure ensures the fuel’s future for decades, jeopardizing the world’s chances of avoiding catastrophic warming.

During a July press conference in England with British Prime Minister Theresa May, Trump struck an upbeat tone. “We’ve become an oil exporter, which would not have happened under the past regime or a new regime if it weren’t us,” he declared.

In fact, America did begin exporting large volumes of crude oil under Obama. He approved a last minute budget deal to avert a government shutdown in 2015, which also removed restrictions on crude sales for the first time in 40 years. However, the country still imports more crude than it exports a trend experts believe will continue.

uk canada goose outlet Congress had enacted the restrictions as a conservation canada goose measure in 1975 following the Arab Oil Embargo, which caused fuel shortages. Under the ban, companies had to refine crude oil into petroleum products such as gasoline or secure special exemptions from the Commerce Department to sell the resource abroad. uk canada goose outlet

As was the case with LNG, interest in crude exports soared when fracking took off. With oil production climbing steadily in 2012, American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard was among the first to suggest the ban be thrown out. Shortly thereafter, crude oil exports became a priority for the GOP as well as some Democrats in drilling states.

But they became an albatross for the Obama canada goose deals White House. Boosting crude oil which doesn’t have any of LNG’s purported climate benefits would put the administration at odds with its own climate agenda. So, in October 2015, the White House threatened to veto legislation lifting the ban, urging Congress to focus on “supporting our transition to a low carbon economy.”

“It didn’t strike us as the best deal,” said Ana Unruh Cohen, managing director https://www.pick-canadagoose.com of government affairs for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. Cohen was an aide to Senator Edward Markey, D Mass., when interest in the ban spiked on Capitol Hill. Markey was the deal’s most vocal opponent, calling it a “Trojan horse” for “pumping up Big Oil’s profits.”.