Over the weekend, Andy Hogue had a terrific piece here at The Hayride dinging the Joe Deadhorse Biden administration for its retaliatory decision to gut approvals for export of liquefied natural gas (LNG), which Andy said was a deliberate blow to Texas’ economy and a tit-for-tat against Texas governor Greg Abbott’s efforts to fight for a closed border between Texas and Mexico.

The Biden administration formally announced on Friday it would temporarily pause decisions on new liquified natural gas (or LNG) exports from the United States, citing man-made climate change theory as a reason.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, called the move “reckless” and “a gut punch to the hard-working men and women in the energy industry. It also could cause some countries to rely upon dirty coal as opposed to cleaner burning natural gas.” Two of Texas’s Republican Railroad Commissioners (a trio who regulate energy, not railroads, despite the historic name for the state agency) called today’s announcement a “unilateral hammer” (Chairman Christi Craddick) and a move which “may recklessly endanger European lives, many of whom are facing a harsh winter with less access to life-saving energy” (Wayne Christian).

The Lone Star State, acccording to the Texas Oil & Gas Association (TXOGA), is the nation’s No. 1 producer of natural gas and the world’s No. 3 producer if on par with the nations of the world. A White House climate change czar said there was yet “plenty of runway” for natural gas profits, as the war in Ukraine has nations boycotting Russian gas markets and turning to the U.S., resulting in a boom for the industry. A temporary pause, the White House claimed, would give the Department of Energy time to weigh how to regulate this ongoing boom.

A boom, by the way, which has helped Texas navigate out of the so-called Biden Recession. Texas has weathered the worsening ecomomic seas well, having maintained the fastest economic expansion in the nation, Abbott has stated numerous times, with oil and gas as a primary driver.

Of course, Louisiana has weathered the Biden economy less well, but the LNG export industry has been thriving in the Lake Charles area and the construction of those terminals has been a sizable driver of that market’s economic growth over the past decade.

Now it’s being kneecapped.

The justifications being offered? Rigzone had a couple of them. One comes from the EU, which has been the primary customer for American LNG over the past couple of years…

Russia had been Europe’s top source of LNG before the former launched its war in Ukraine 2022. However, over 60 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) wrote to President Joe Biden and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm expressing support for the decision to restrict LNG export.

While they acknowledged the US had played a key role in helping Europe avoid an energy crisis in the aftermath of the war, the lawmakers said “almost all EU member states reduced and continue reducing their gas demand”.

“We are concerned that a false depiction of European energy needs is now being used as an excuse by the fossil fuel industry and their allies to dramatically expand US LNG exports to the global market”, said the letter, shared on the website of MEP Marie Toussaint.

A report by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) November on the progress of LNG terminal projects said the US is poised to lead North American growth in export capacity over the next few years. New projects are set to grow the continent’s LNG export capacity to 24.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcfpd) by 2027. “By the end of 2027, we estimate LNG export capacity will grow by 1.1 Bcf/d in Mexico, 2.1 Bcf/d in Canada, and 9.7 Bcf/d in the United States from a total of 10 new projects across the three countries”, the EIA wrote on its website.

This is absolutely insane, by the way. Germany, the largest economy in the EU, is in the middle of a collapse thanks to high energy costs. German manufacturing fell by two percent last year and is expected to either stagnate or fall again this year. And now you have this cabal of MEP’s demanding more of the same.

Not a majority, by the way. There are 705 MEP’s. This isn’t even 10 percent. But citing these clowns as a justification for their being less EU demand for American LNG is par for the course.

Then there is this, which is obviously a little more familiar…

An environmental group in Louisiana, which hosts several LNG projects, expressed support for the export moratorium, alleging risks from such facilities to the state’s fisheries industry and clean water supply.

“In addition to threatening the seafood industry, gas export terminals also make surrounding areas more vulnerable to flooding during major hurricanes,” Anne Rolfes, director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, said in a statement. “The terminals eat away at natural barriers such as cheniere plains and sandbars, and their massive walls only push the storm surge into nearby communities.”

The thing is, nobody makes policy based on the recommendations of Rolfes and the insane harpies at the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Not even the Biden administration.

Let’s remember that last year, the Biden administration vacated oil sanctions against Venezuela, which isn’t just a communist dictatorship with a horrific human rights record and corruption at Robert Mugabe levels but also the source of some of the world’s heaviest, sourest crude oil which contains lots of impurities and is harder and dirtier to refine.

So while it likes to talk about getting us off fossil fuels and running the world on unicorn farts, et cetera, none of this is really true.

No, this is exactly what Andy said. This is the Biden administration realizing that if it attempts to, say, federalize the Texas National Guard and/or the National Guards of the other states sending people to the border, the political consequences will be catastrophic – and particularly to the Biden administration.

So instead, they look at where the LNG terminals are, and they realize it’s mostly Texas and Louisiana. And that’s an easy way to punish Texas and Louisiana for attempting to shut down Biden’s border invasion.

We all know the border invasion is aimed at turning Texas blue, at least over time, and Abbott seems to be doing a halfway decent job at foiling that plan between busing migrants to big blue sanctuary cities and causing intense problems for the Democrat politicians there, and now with the state applying resources and razor wire to the problem.

But we can’t say we’re too impressed with this latest retaliatory move, insofar as it’s pretty unlikely to make many Texans want to vote Democrat and thus gut their state’s energy economy.

This isn’t strategic. It’s just petty. It might pander to the climate change morons like Rolfes and Al Gore, but everybody else can see this for exactly what it is.