by Jason Hopkins
President Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser said the U.S. is capable of upending Russia’s “hegemony” in the international energy market.
“Some of the things we’re talking about do focus on the energy sector,” Larry Kudlow said during an interview with Hill.TV that aired Monday. “We are the dominant energy power. We will be producing 15 million barrels of oil per day in a couple of years. We’re passing the Saudis. We’re passing Russia.”
Kudlow, who currently serves as director of the National Economic Council, bragged that there is so much natural gas coming out of the Permian Basin, for example, American producers don’t even know what to do with it. Numerous regions across the U.S. are experiencing a natural gas boom, thanks in large part to the implementation of hydraulic fracturing.
“So what does that mean? Means we have to have infrastructure for pipelines, east, west, west, east. Get this stuff to the northeast, get this stuff to Europe and challenge Russia’s hegemony on nat gas and LNG [liquified natural gas],” he said. “This is doable. We have to really focus on the energy sector. Most of this stuff can be done privately.”
Kudlow ended the segment by explaining that the government simply has to “speed up” the permitting process and deregulate the industry in order to unlock the country’s full energy potential.
This approach, of course, has been the bedrock of the Trump administration’s agenda.
Trump campaigned on a pledge of ending former President Barack Obama’s “war on coal.” Since entering office, Trump has made moves to roll back a number of Obama-era environmental regulations, including the Clean Power Plan, Waters of the United States, and has withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris climate accord. More recently, Trump has rolled back more rules that have hindered the fossil fuel industry, such as methane, mercury and offshore drilling regulations.
As far as selling U.S. natural gas and stemming Russia’s hold on the market, the president has actively worked with European leaders and has encouraged them to buy more American LNG. In a meeting with Trump in July, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker agreed to purchase more U.S. natural gas. Trump held talks in September with Polish President Andrzej Duda, who also expressed interest in buying more American LNG in lieu of Russia’s imports.
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Jason Hopkins is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Jason on Twitter.
