We all know that since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, especially the bombing of the "Nord Stream" gas pipeline, the United States has made a lot of money in oil and gas exports, but the Biden administration, which has always talked about low-carbon environmental protection, has recently issued an incredible ban, which has dealt a blow to its own oil and gas industry.
(Biden freezes oil and gas export approvals)
The White House released its latest statement, announcing that it will freeze the approval of new natural gas export projects. The announcement covers a total of 17 new LNG export projects awaiting approval. The White House said the decision was made for environmental and energy security reasons, as well as energy costs. On the surface, this rhetoric is in line with the basic policies of the Democratic Party, especially radical environmentalism.
In addition, the current international natural gas price is at a relatively low level, although slightly higher than in 2023, but only half of the peak in 2022. There are already signs of oversupply in the market, and expanding LNG exports is obviously not conducive to more profits for related companies. This logic can also be seen in the previous behavior of OPEC members who chose to collectively cut production and raise oil prices when they encountered low oil prices.
But in the context of the upcoming U.S. election and last week's standoff between the National Guard and federal law enforcement in Texas. Biden's decision at this moment is quite meaningful. For no other reason, the vast majority of LNG in the United States is produced in Texas, and a ban will inevitably cause Texas to suffer heavy losses.
In the past, we have seen similar bans issued by the United States, mostly to create trouble for hostile countries, such as more than 10,000 bans issued by them and their allies against Russia since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. But no one expected that one day the American boomerang would be able to hit its own people.
The contradictions between the Biden administration and Texas have been boiling over recently. Mainly on the issue of immigration, Biden wants to embrace immigrants, which induces a wave of illegal immigrants entering the Texas border, but the federal government has not come up with follow-up measures to allow these immigrants to storm the Texas border. Over the past year, millions of immigrants have poured into Texas, leaving even Democratic lawmakers in the state unbearable. After several battles between the state government and the federal government, Biden's ignorance eventually led to Texas coming up with an extremely tough immigration policy and shouting the slogan of "defending the border".
(Texas sends National Guard to guard the border)
Texas Governor Abbott invoked Article 1, Section 10, Item 3 of the U.S. Constitution to declare that Texas' right to self-defense is higher than federal law. The federal government has the support of the Supreme Court and does not allow Texas to erect blade barbed nets at the border, and the two sides do not give in to each other, "The United States is about to break out into a civil war" rushed to the hot search, Biden introduced a ban on natural gas exports at this moment, who do you say it is aimed at.
In fact, in the American economic system, most of the supporters of the Democratic Party come from Wall Street and Silicon Valley, and they are less affected by immigration, so they will embrace immigrants and canvass frantically among African Americans and Latinos. Most of the Republican Party's funders come from traditional industries, such as steel, oil and gas, and other industries, which are large employers, and the jobs of low-level white people are taken away by immigrants, and they hate these illegal immigrants who have poured into the United States even more.
(Trump)
Now, Biden's "heavy fist" will inevitably hit the Texas oil and gas economy hard. With the threat of force on the one hand, and economic sanctions on the other, I have to say that President Biden is equally ruthless both internally and externally.