By Jim Dickson
When I was a young man starting out into the world my father gave me a piece of advice. “Most people are not nearly as dumb as you think they are; it’s wise to reserve judgment until you know all the reasons for their actions, because you may find out that you are the dumb one,” or something like that.
I am inclined to believe that he lifted that from Confucius or maybe Ben Franklin, even though he was a pretty wise man himself. Wherever it came from, it’s still pretty good advice and has served me well over the years, when I wasn’t too dumb forget it.
This morning when I picked up my Wall Street Journal and read that the Biden administration had announced a pause on every new pending permit for liquefied natural gas export terminal in the United States, which usually means in bureaucratize, to delay until it dies. I immediately thought to myself, of all the dumb things they have done over the past three years of so, this races to the top of the dumb list.
Then I remembered my fathers wise words, and thought wait; there must be some good reasons for doing this. Although my intentions were pure, my first thoughts were of the reasons why we would want to produce and export more natural gas.
1. It provides millions of dollars in profits and taxes paid to both the federal and state governments.
2. It is part of energy independence which enhances our national defense posture and makes us stronger.
3. It provides thousands of good high paying jobs for Americans.
4. The use of gas-powered electric generation has allowed Americans to lead the world in the reduction of carbon emissions.
5. Most of the electricity generated in America comes from natural gas, it is a backup to wind when the wind doesn’t blow, and solar when the sun doesn’t shine, so we don’t have massive blackouts … yet. If there is any merit to the breakneck race to have most cars and trucks electric by 2035, we need more all-weather power generation, not less.
6. When Russia invaded Ukraine and most of western Europe was dependent on Russian natural gas for heat and industrial purposes, we assured our allies that we would replace Russia, and supply them with an ongoing, dependable supply of natural gas. To do this we must have more export terminals to load the ships that carry the gas to our friends, and we would not alienate them by breaking our word.
7. By replacing Russia as the major supplier, we deny them billions of dollars in profits that they can use to carry on the war in Ukraine and perhaps invade more of Eastern Europe.
That all made good common sense, but to be fair, I needed to get back to the good reasons that Mr. Biden had for shutting the permitting process down. Those answers didn’t come as easily, but right or wrong here is what I came up with.
1. It would make Elizabeth Warren, AOC, Bernie Sanders and all of the Green New Deal people very happy, and Mr. Biden is going to need their support if he is to be re-elected in 2024.
2. Russia, Iran and Venezuela would all be happy because it would turn that business back over to them, it’s worth billions to countries who hate us. Why Mr. Biden would want that I am not sure, but who knows. At that point in spite of my best efforts I ran out of gas, which maybe that in itself may be another good reason, but hard as I tried for the sake of my dear old Dad and his friend Confucius, I came right back to my original premise, that it was a really dumb, and dangerous idea.
Sorry dad, but I gave it my best try.
Born, raised and educated in the Southwest, Jim Dickson served in the U.S. Navy Reserve in Vietnam before a 35-year business career. Retired to St. Helena Island, Dickson and his wife are fiscally conservative, socially moderate and active in Republican politics, though they may not always agree with Republicans. Having lived around the country and traveled around the world, Dickson believes that the United States truly is the land of opportunity.
