Climate Hawks Urge Biden To Reject Latest GOP Demand For Ukraine Aid

WASHINGTON — Top progressives are urging President Joe Biden to stand firm and reject an emerging Republican plan that would condition U.S. assistance to Ukraine upon the Biden administration unfreezing approvals of new liquefied natural gas, or LNG, export permits, which the administration put on hold in January to the delight of environmental groups.

“The desperate attempt to force the Biden Administration to reverse its pause on new LNG exports is clearly not what is right for American families, our economy, or our fight against climate chaos and autocrats across the globe,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said in a statement to HuffPost on Monday.

During an interview on Fox News over the weekend, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) suggested resuming LNG permitting would be one “innovation” Republicans would seek that would allow them to “unleash American energy [and] have national gas exports that will unfund Vladimir Putin’s war effort” in Ukraine.

Biden announced a temporary pause on approvals of new permits in January to examine their environmental impacts, citing data showing the U.S. as the number one exporter of LNG worldwide . The GOP-led House voted Feb. 15 to roll back the freeze, citing its impact on industry jobs, but the bill will face long odds once it gets to the Democratic-held Senate.

It’s not clear yet whether Democrats would agree to the GOP demand regarding LNG. Congress is on recess, and the House is expected to take up some sort of foreign assistance package when they return to Washington next week. But some progressives and environmental groups are trying to kill the idea.

“With our allies in Europe well-supplied by existing exports and the U.S. continuing to increase its LNG export capacity,