WASHINGTON, June 17 (RIA Novosti) – An outspoken US senator on energy issues on Monday urged the United States to speed up natural gas exports to counter what he called Russia’s dominance on European energy markets.
“Russia’s control of the natural gas market and prices results in some of our allies paying exorbitant rates. Expensive energy limits their economic competitiveness and their citizens’ way of life,” wrote Sen. John Barrasso in an op-ed in the Washington Post.
Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming and a member of the Senate’s energy and foreign relations committees, blasted “the heavy hand of Russian influence and oppression” he said he witnessed on recent travels in eastern Europe and the Gulf to research energy issues.
Barrasso called on the administration of President Barack Obama to speed up natural gas exports to compete against Russia, saying the most recent export application approved by the US Energy Department took 29 months and was the first request the department had approved in two years.
“The United States has a rare opportunity to simultaneously help its allies, strengthen its foreign policy hand and create much-needed jobs at home – all by exporting plentiful American natural gas,” Barrasso wrote.
The US has been able to tap into huge natural gas reserves in recent years through a process known as hydraulic fracturing, which has helped push the country towards energy independence and helped create thousands of jobs. There are growing calls on Capitol Hill and in the energy industry for the country to export its vast amount of natural gas.
Environmentalists have opposed increased natural gas production in the United States and there are energy experts who say that increased natural gas exports might raise natural gas prices within the United States.
Barrasso in his op-ed countered by saying that an Energy Department study “found that any price increases would be more than offset by broader economic gains.”
Barrasso has introduced legislation that would allow for faster US approval of natural gas exports to NATO allies, Japan and other countries.
His op-ed comes the same day as Obama meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland and the senator said the meeting “should be a spotlight on our two nations’ drastically different approaches to natural gas exports.”
In his op-ed, Barrasso also said “The high prices Russia receives for exported energy also strengthen Putin at home. And a stronger Putin and a dominant Russia do little to advance US interests.”
Russia exports more natural gas than any other country in the world. According to the US Energy Information Administration, Russia holds the world’s largest reserves of natural gas and was the second-largest producer of natural gas in 2011 behind the United States.
The US Energy Department did not immediately respond to Barrasso’s comments when contacted by RIA Novosti.
