The Biden administration just can’t quit natural gas.

So, it was no surprise when Secretary of State Antony Blinken stood in Brussels on Tuesday and pledged to keep sending massive amounts of the liquefied stuff to the European Union.

Despite President Joe Biden and EU leaders standing shoulder to shoulder on climate commitments like capping methane emissions, the trans-Atlantic alliance appears bound most tightly by Europe’s need for U.S. natural gas — and America’s enthusiasm for selling it.

With the war in Ukraine still raging, the West’s attempt to undercut Russia’s war chest by refusing to buy its oil and gas has hammered that country’s finances.

“Climate concerns and environmental concerns prior to the war looked like they were an impediment to U.S. exports to Europe,” said Antoine Halff, former chief oil analyst at the International Energy Agency and now a scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. “Now it’s a changed conversation, focused much more on energy security.”

So, liquefied natural gas, or LNG, is having a moment.

One notable impact: As Europe gobbled up the world’s non-Russian natural gas, countries like Pakistan and Sri Lanka were suddenly priced out of the LNG market.

Aside from the human toll that high-priced energy or energy shortages can have on poorer countries, those developing nations are now burning more coal. That’s bad for people’s health and bad for the planet.

LNG’s rise also appears to demonstrate that the world’s largest economies — the United States, the European Union, Russia, China, and India — are drifting further apart when it comes to climate and energy policies.

But the new world order on gas has solidified a long-standing unity across the pond.

In 2022, the amount of gas the United States sent to Europe — a whopping 56 billion cubic meters — was double the previous year. And Blinken said the U.S. will send at least 50 bcm this year too.

“Over the past year, the United States and Europe have thrown our energy security cooperation into even higher gear,” Blinken said.

And that revving up is fueled by American gas.

It’s Wednesday— thank you for tuning in to POLITICO’s Power Switch. I’m your host, Heather Richards. Your regular host, Arianna Skibell, will be back soon! Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to [email protected]

Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: POLITICO’s Kelsey Tamborrino explores what exactly the Biden administration has promised in coal country with recent tax credits for renewable projects in energy communities.

Power Centers

Abortion could set stage for climate fight

When Texas passed a law allowing private citizens to sue abortion providers, it may have paved the way for New Yorkers to sue oil companies over climate change. That’s the reasoning, at least, behind one state lawmaker’s proposed legislation, writes E&E News’ Lesley Clark.

Poop. That’s it. That’s the headline.

There’s a clean water problem in Britain that people are getting stinked up over — and they’re blaming Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government.

Private water firms have been dumping untreated sewage into Britain’s rivers and oceans. Unusually, the country’s water is controlled by private companies, in regional monopolies, but with their poop washing onto the beach, the issue has become a serious election problem for Britain’s conservative PM, writes POLITICO Europe’s Esther Webber.

EPA is coming for coal power, again

EPA just released the biggest proposed update to its air toxics regulations for coal plants in a decade, and it’s got a notoriously dirty breed of the black rock, lignite, in its crosshairs, writes E&E News’ Sean Reilly.

As proposed, the regulations would reverse a Trump-era decision that said no updates were needed.

In Other News

Offshore oil disappoints: Exxon is walking away from a multibillion-dollar gambit to drill in the deep waters off the coast of Brazil. Why? They didn’t strike oil.

Question Corner

What president visited a muddy pipeline storage yard outside of Cushing, Okla., in an election year to pledge support for construction of the southern portion of the Keystone XL pipeline?

If you know the answer, send it to [email protected] with “Question Corner” in the subject line.

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A showcase of some of our best subscriber content.

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is angry and ready to sue over the implementation of Biden’ electric vehicle tax credits, a key element of the White House — and many Democrats’ — plan to push U.S. consumers away from gas-powered cars. The question is, can he do that?

There’s a banking fight gearing up, between execs and activist investors who want climate resolutions with teeth hammered into lender policies and practices once and for all.

New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration appears to have dropped a proposal that would weaken the state’s climate law to alleviate cost concerns, just a day after defending it from environmental groups’ intense criticism.

Exxon again is saying it’s all in on capturing carbon dioxide as part of a climate future. But while it’s clear the mega oil producer envisions carbon solutions to keep its business booming, what’s less certain is whether Exxon will ever spend a significant portion of cash to make carbon capture any kind of solution at scale.

That’s it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.

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