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Rep. Bill Johnson visits 4 countries, says Europe wants energy exports
YOUNGSTOWN
During U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson’s recent trip to Portugal, Belgium, Germany and particularly Ukraine, he said he repeatedly heard one thing from those countries’ leaders: please export American energy.
“Europe is begging the United States to lead on the economic and energy fronts,” said Johnson of Marietta, R-6th, whose district includes all of Columbiana County and portions of Mahoning County.
Johnson said he was among eight members of Congress to visit leaders in the four nations on a trip from May 3-9.
The House approved in January a bill sponsored by Johnson, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, to expedite the federal approval process to export liquefied natural gas. The Senate needs to approve the bill.
The bill would give the federal Department of Energy up to 30 days to review an application to export liquefied natural gas or LNG.
Johnson said there are 33 such applications sitting at the department without a decision – some for a couple of years. There were five others the department approved, he said.
“We’re trickling along when we ought to let the market dictate this,” Johnson said.
The policy change would help the economy of eastern Ohio and reduce Russia’s control over European countries that buy natural gas from the Russians, Johnson said. Russia provides almost one-third of Europe’s natural gas.
“If we get this through, it will give those countries another energy source,” Johnson said. “Europe depends too much on Russia for its energy needs.”
Also, Russia’s economy is heavily dependent on the sale of gas to other countries, he said. That includes Ukraine, which has been battling Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country for about a year and has strained relations between the United States and Russia.
“We need to cut off the [Russian] cash flow,” Johnson said. “How do you do that? You get into the liquefied natural-gas global market. We’d impact the Russian economy, and it would slow down [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.”
Eastern Ohio has “an abundant oversupply of natural gas under our feet” in the Marcellus and Utica shales, he said.
“If we can provide LNG to our friends and allies in Europe, we’re talking about creating thousands of jobs in eastern Ohio and weakening Russia,” Johnson said.