US Lawmakers Hold First Hearing on Biden’s LNG Project Approval Pause

By Timothy Gardner February 6, 2024

WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) – As Republican and some Democratic U.S. lawmakers slam President Joe Biden’s pause on approvals of exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) a House subcommittee held a hearing on the issue on Tuesday, the first of two in Congress this week.

Biden, a Democrat, paused approvals for new exports from LNG projects indefinitely so his administration can take a “hard look” at the environmental and economic impacts of increased shipments.

The House Energy, Climate and Grid Security Subcommittee hearing features Toby Rice, the CEO of EQT EQT.N – the largest U.S. natural gas producer – and Gillian Gianetti, a lawyer at the Natural Resources Defense Council non-profit that applauded Biden’s move.

Environmentalists and youth groups, an important part of Biden’s base, had pressured the administration to slow approvals of fossil fuel projects due to climate concerns.

A broad range of domestic businesses ranging from chemicals, steel, food and agriculture, also oppose unrestricted exports of U.S. gas, saying it could raise fuel prices and make domestic supplies less reliable.

Representative August Pfluger, a Republican, this month introduced legislation that would strip the Department of Energy of its power to approve exports, leaving the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, an independent panel, with the sole authority of the LNG approval process.

If such a measure passed the House, controlled by Republicans, it could struggle in the Senate, where Democrats have a narrow majority.

The U.S. exported more LNG than any other country last year and is expected to double shipments by the end of the decade with fully approved projects.

Some lawmakers claim the pause will hurt energy security of U.S. partners and allies. A letter from 150 House Republicans on Sunday to Biden said Europeans were “desperately seeking American energy to counter Russia’s weaponization of its natural gas exports.”

Europe will have enough gas supply for the 10 years and beyond despite the pause, EU energy officials and analysts said, dismissing industry’s warnings. The pause comes with exceptions for supply emergencies.

The Senate Energy Committee, chaired by Senator Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat from gas-producing West Virginia, has a hearing scheduled on Thursday, with Deputy U.S. Energy Secretary David Turk.

Democratic Senators Bob Casey and John Fetterman of gas-producing Pennsylvania have said if the decision puts jobs at risk they will push the administration to reverse the pause.

https://gcaptain.com/us-lawmakers-hold-first-hearing-on-bidens-lng-project-approval-pause/

High Tanker Rates Hit U.S. Crude Exports to Asia

By Arathy Somasekhar and Muyu Xu February 6, 2024

HOUSTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) – U.S. crude oil exports to Asia tumbled to 1 million barrels per day in January, the lowest in over two years as high freight rates and more competitively-priced Middle Eastern oils slashed shipments.

A surge in supertanker freight rates made it expensive to ship to Asia at the start of the month, particularly to China.

Exports to China, the world’s largest crude importer, fell to 190,000 bpd, the lowest in 13 months. Volumes to South Korea held steady at 494,000 bpd, according to data from ship tracking service Kpler.

Overall, U.S. oil exports fell to 3.8 million barrels per day, the lowest in a year. January typically sees weaker exports as onshore inventories rebuild after a seasonal outflow in December.

Some of the oil traditionally flowing to Asia went to Europe, where its share of January exports rose to 55%, the highest on record. The Netherlands snapped up a record 614,000 bpd, followed by the United Kingdom and Spain.

Asia’s share fell to 27% last month, the lowest since December 2016.

The Red Sea turmoil has not reduced U.S. imports of Middle East crude, the data showed, with much of those shipments landing on the U.S. West Coast via the Pacific Ocean.

Volumes from Saudi Arabia to the U.S. Gulf Coast and East Coast were steady as the oil moves on very large crude tankers that round Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, rather than take the Red Sea route.

Re-rerouting has bolstered U.S. arrivals of Kazakhstan’s CPC Blend crude, which gained 8,000 bpd in January compared to the three month moving average.

Research firm Energy Aspects said it expects U.S. exports in February to increase to 4.4 million barrels per day as prices of U.S. light sweet crude were competitive versus North Sea and West African grades.

Exports to Asia, however, will likely remain tepid as the cost for U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude arriving in May remains more expensive than Abu Dhabi’s flagship Murban crude, two traders said.

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia unexpectedly kept the March price of its flagship Arab Light crude to Asia unchanged at a more than two-year low on Tuesday.

Market participants expect other Middle East oil producers to follow suit, adding pressure on U.S. crude prices this month.

https://gcaptain.com/high-tanker-rates-hit-u-s-crude-exports-to-asia/

Hundreds of Bulgarian farmers block roads in EU protest

Story by AFP Feb 6, 2024

undreds of Bulgarian farmers blocked roads across the country on Tuesday to protest against tightening EU regulations and to demand more compensation for losses engendered by cheap imports from war-torn Ukraine.

Protests by the agriculture sector have sprung up all over the European Union in recent weeks.

Demonstrations in France and Romania have lost steam but farmers in the Netherlands, Spain, Latvia and Italy are pressing home multiple demands.

"We are on the edge. Small and medium-sized agricultural producers in Bulgaria are set to go bankrupt if there is no change, if there is no immediate payment of delayed subsidies and no support for the damages we suffer from the war in Ukraine," grain producer Ventsislav Mitkov, 42, told AFP at a road block near the small western town of Breznik.

Mitkov and several dozen farmers from the region blocked a road to Serbia with their tractors for about two hours and vowed to join a bigger blockade in the nearby town of Pernik on Wednesday.

There, a handful of farmers also gathered on Tuesday to move slowly along a key junction on the highway linking the capital Sofia to Greece, blowing their tractors' horns and hindering traffic.

"They make prices go down by importing cheap produce from countries outside the EU, at the same time slapping on us various new restrictions that do not allow us to be competitive," farmer Miloslav Mihaylov, 35, fumed about EU rules.

Farmers mostly from the country's grain production sector are vowing to maintain road blocks until the end of the week if their demands are not met.

They want greater compensation for being undercut by cheaper imports from Ukraine.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/hundreds-of-bulgarian-farmers-block-roads-in-eu-protest/ar-BB1hSdmS?

Border and Ukraine aid deal collapses despite Biden's plea for Congress to 'show some spine'

Story by STEPHEN GROVES, MARY CLARE JALONICK and AAMER MADHANI Feb 6, 2024

A Senate deal on border enforcement measures and Ukraine aid suffered a swift and total collapse Tuesday as Republicans withdrew support despite President Biden urging Congress to “show some spine” and stand up to Donald Trump.

Just minutes after the Democratic president's remarks at the White House, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell emerged from a GOP luncheon at the Capitol and acknowledged that the deal was dead.

“It looks to me and to most of our members that we have no real chance here to make a law,” the Kentucky Republican told reporters.

he split-screen moments in Washington represented a rapid turn of events that showed McConnell’s weakening control of his GOP conference, Trump’s growing influence, and Biden’s ability only to look on as a cornerstone of his foreign policy — halting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s advance into Europe — crumbled in Congress.

Biden had engaged for months with Senate leaders on a carefully negotiated plan to pair policies intended to curb illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border with $60 billion in wartime aid for Ukraine. The bill was intended to exhibit American strength around the world and would also have sent tens of billions of dollars more for Israel, other U.S. allies in Asia, the U.S. immigration system and humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza and Ukraine.

But after Republicans rejected the compromise, the president and Senate leaders are now stranded with no clear way to advance aid for Ukraine through Congress. They have run into a wall of opposition from conservatives — led by Trump — who reject the border proposal as insufficient and criticize Ukraine funding as wasteful.

Biden laid blame for the bill's demise squarely on Trump — his likely Republican opponent in the November presidential election.

“For the last 24 hours he’s done nothing, I’m told, but reach out to Republicans in the House and the Senate and threaten them and try to intimidate them to vote against this proposal,” Biden said. "It looks like they’re caving. Frankly, they owe it to the American people to show some spine and do what they know to be right.”

Democrats in the Capitol vented frustration at their colleagues as it became clear that the deal was done.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer cast Tuesday as a “gloomy day here in the United States Senate” during a floor speech in which he scolded Republicans for backing away from the deal. He still dared them to vote against border security — an issue they have long championed.

“After months of good faith negotiations, after months of giving Republicans many of the things they asked for, Leader McConnell and the Republican conference are ready to kill the national security supplemental package even with border provisions they so fervently demand,” the New York Democrat said.

After McConnell insisted that border policy changes be included in the package last year, the White House worked for months with senators on a compromise. They hoped it would unlock Republican votes for Ukraine aid in the House — where scores of GOP lawmakers have come out against funding Kyiv's fight against Russia.

Out of funds, the Pentagon is sending no more arms shipments to Kyiv just as the war — entering its third year — reaches a critical juncture. Ukraine is struggling with ammunition and personnel shortages while Russia is on the offensive, mounting relentless attacks.

“Every week, every month that passes without new aid to Ukraine means fewer artillery shells, fewer air defense systems, fewer tools for Ukraine to defend itself against this Russian onslaught,” Biden said. “Just what Putin wants.”

Senators have been floundering for a way to get Ukraine funding through the Republican-controlled House. And after the border compromise collapsed Tuesday, some suggested jettisoning that portion from the package and advancing the aid for U.S. allies on their own.

But that idea also faces resistance in the Republican-controlled House, where Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is under pressure from hard-line conservatives not to bring any Ukraine funding up for a vote.

When asked Tuesday about wartime aid for Ukraine and Israel, he told reporters, “We have to deal with these measures and these issues independently and separately.”

The House was scheduled to vote on a $17.6-billion package of military aid for Israel, but hard-line conservatives have signaled opposition because the funding would not be offset with budget cuts in other areas. Democrats were also largely opposed to the bill because it undermined the push for a comprehensive package that would include Ukraine and other allies in Asia.

The lack of a national security deal will loom large over Biden’s Friday meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Biden plans to underscore to Scholz that he remains committed to providing Ukraine the funding it needs to continue to repel the nearly two-year-old Russian invasion.

McConnell said in an earlier floor speech that it was essential to assert American strength in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, yet also blamed Biden for not responding sooner to threats from rival powers.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/border-and-ukraine-aid-deal-collapses-despite-bidens-plea-for-congress-to-show-some-spine/ar-BB1hT64a

>>20369835

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This clock?

Zelenskyy signals a shakeup of Ukraine's military leadership is imminent at a critical point in war

Story by By ILLIA NOVIKOV and SAMYA KULLAB, Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he is thinking about dismissing the country's top military officer as part of a broader leadership shakeup, a possibility that has shocked the nation fighting a war to end Russia's invasion and also worried Ukraine's Western allies.

Zelenskyy confirmed in an interview with Italian broadcaster RAI TV released late Sunday that he was thinking about removing Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the popular commander-in-chief of Ukraine's armed forces. He said he was contemplating the move to ensure the country remains led by individuals who are “convinced of victory” against Russia.

“A reset, a new beginning is necessary,” Zelenskyy said. The review is "not about a single person but about the direction of the country’s leadership.”

"I’m thinking about this replacement, but you can’t say here we replaced a single person,” Zelenskyy said. “When we talk about this, I mean a replacement of a series of state leaders, not just in a single sector like the military. If we want to win, we must all push in the same direction, convinced of victory. We cannot be discouraged, let our arms fall. We must have the right positive energy.”

Zelenskyy's comments were his first acknowledgement of Zaluzhnyi,'s possible firing. The potential ouster of the general already has caused an uproar in Ukraine and delighted the Kremlin as the war approaches its second anniversary.

Zaluzhnyi is widely respected among Ukrainian service members and considered a national hero. He is credited with stalling Russia’s full-scale invasion in the early days of the war and expertly pushing back Moscow’s troops.

Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko criticized the possibility of Zaluzhnyi’s firing, saying it was due to the general's leadership that “many Ukrainians truly trust the armed forces.”

“Today is a moment when politics might prevail over reason and country’s interests," Klitschko said on social media. The mayor of Ukraine's capital city has been a vocal critic of Zelenskyy. The presidency in turn has accused Klitschko's office of inefficiencies.

It is unclear who might replace Zaluzhnyi and if his successor would command the same level of respect from Ukraine's troops and foreign defense leaders. His firing could risk degrading morale at a critical time in the war.

According to Ukrainian and Western media reports, Zelenskyy asked Zaluzhnyi to resign last week, but the general refused. Zaluzhnyi has not commented publicly on the reports.

Tensions between him and the president have been rising since a much anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive, which was launched in June with the help of an array of Western weapons, failed to produce major territory gains in Russian-occupied areas, disappointing allies.

Ukraine now is grappling with ammunition and personnel shortages while Russia is on the offensive, mounting relentless attacks. Four people were killed and at least one was injured in a Monday afternoon strike over the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine, the head of the local military administration said.

he need for a broad mobilization to beef up the number of Ukrainian troops has reportedly been one of the areas of disagreement between Zelenskyy and Zaluzhnyi.

Zelenskyy said at the end of last year that he had turned down the military’s request to marshal up to 500,000 people, demanding more details about how the mobilization would be organized and paid for.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/us/ukraines-president-confirms-hes-thinking-about-dismissing-the-countrys-military-chief/ar-BB1hNdBP

>>20370019

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