From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By David Blackmon

News broke last week that the Biden Department of Energy (DOE), led by former Secretary Jennifer Granholm, was so dedicated to the Biden White House’s efforts to damage the dynamic U.S. LNG export industry that it resorted to covering up a 2023 DOE study which found that growth in exports provide net benefits to the environment and economy.

“The Energy Department has learned that former Secretary Granholm and the Biden White House intentionally buried a lot of data and released a skewed study to discredit the benefits of American LNG,” one DOE source told Nick Pope of the Daily Caller News Foundation.. “[T]he administration intentionally deceived the American public to advance an agenda that harmed American energy security, the environment and American lives.”

And “deceived” is the best word to describe what happened here. When the White House issued an order signed by the administration’s very busy autopen to invoke what was supposed to be a temporary “pause” in permitting of LNG infrastructure, it was done at the behest of far-left climate czar John Podesta, with Granholm’s full buy-in. As I’ve cataloged here in past stories, this cynical “pause” was based on the flimsiest possible rationale, and the “science” supposedly underlying it was easily debunked and fell completely apart over time.

But the ploy moved ahead anyway, with Granholm and her DOE staff ordered to conduct their own study related to the advisability of allowing further growth of the domestic LNG industry. We know now that study already existed but hadn’t reached the hoped-for conclusions.

The two unfounded fears at hand were concerns that rising exports of U.S. LNG would a) cause domestic prices to rise for consumers, and b) would result in higher emissions than alternative energy sources. As the Wall Street Journal notes, a draft of that 2023 study “shows that increased U.S. LNG exports would have negligible effects on domestic prices while modestly reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. The latter is largely because U.S. LNG exports would displace coal in power production and gas exports from other countries such as Russia.”

An energy secretary and climate advisor interested in seeking truth based on science would have made that 2023 study public, and the “pause” would have been a short-lived, temporary thing. Instead, the Biden officials decided to try to bury this inconvenient truth, causing the “pause” to endure right through the final day of the Biden regime with a clear intention of turning it into permanent policy had Kamala Harris and her “summer of joy” campaign managed to prevail on Nov. 5.

Fortunately for the country, voters chose more wisely, and President Trump included ending this deceitful “pause” exercise as part of his Day One agenda. No autopen was involved.

So, the thing is resolved in favor of truth and common sense now, but it is important to understand exactly what was at stake here, exactly how important an industry these Biden officials were trying to freeze in place.

In an interview on Fox News Monday, current Energy Secretary Chris Wright did just that, pointing out that, fifteen years ago, America was “the largest importer of natural gas in the world. Today, we’re the largest exporter.”

He went onto add that, “the Biden administration put a pause on LNG exports 14 months ago, January of 2024, sending a message to the world that maybe the US isn’t going to continue to grow our exports. Think of the extra leverage that gives Russia, the extra fear that gives the Europeans or the Asians that are dying for more American energy.”

Then, Wright supplied the kicker: “They did this in spite of their own study that showed increasing LNG exports would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and have a negligible impact on price.” It was an effort, Wright concludes, to kill what he says is “America’s greatest energy advantage.”

This incident is a stain on the Biden administration and its senior leaders. The stain becomes more indelible when we remember that, when asked by Speaker Mike Johnson why he had signed that order, Joe Biden himself had no memory of doing so, telling Johnson, “I didn’t do that.”

Sadly, we know now there’s a good chance Mr. Biden was telling the speaker the truth. But someone did it, and it’s a travesty.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.

MxM News

Quick Hit:

Vice President JD Vance announced he will join Second Lady Usha Vance in Greenland on Friday, escalating the Trump administration’s focus on the island amid growing global interest and resistance from Danish and Greenlandic officials.

Key Details:

• Vance will join Usha Vance and U.S. officials already in Greenland, including National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
• The trip includes a stop at Pituffik Space Base to assess Arctic security and meet with U.S. Space Force guardians.
• Greenland’s prime minister called the second lady’s earlier visit an “aggressive” move as Trump reaffirms his interest in acquiring the island.

Diving Deeper:

Vice President JD Vance confirmed Tuesday that he will accompany Second Lady Usha Vance to Greenland at the end of the week, intensifying U.S. engagement with the strategically located island that President Donald Trump has long said should be part of the United States. The visit reflects the administration’s ongoing efforts to strengthen America’s geopolitical presence in the Arctic and counter growing threats from adversarial nations seeking influence in the region.

“You know, there was so much excitement around Usha’s visit to Greenland this Friday that I decided that I didn’t want her to have all that fun by herself, and so I’m going to join her,” Vance said in a video posted to X, formerly Twitter.

The vice president said he will be visiting U.S. Space Force personnel stationed at Pituffik Space Base on Greenland’s northwest coast, where he will receive a briefing on security developments in the Arctic and inspect key infrastructure critical to American defense.

“A lot of other countries have threatened Greenland,” Vance warned. “Have threatened to use its territories and its waterways to threaten the United States, to threaten Canada, and, of course, to threaten the people of Greenland. So we’re gonna check out how things are going there.”

The second lady’s presence already drew a sharp rebuke from Greenland’s prime minister, who denounced the visit as an “aggressive” gesture amid renewed speculation that Trump may move to formally acquire the autonomous Danish territory. Despite the backlash, Usha Vance currently holds the distinction of being the highest-ranking U.S. political figure to visit Greenland since Trump returned to the White House as the 47th president in January.

In comments that will likely raise further diplomatic alarms in Copenhagen, Vance reiterated President Trump’s broader Arctic strategy, emphasizing the administration’s commitment to defending Greenland’s people—and the world—from neglect and external threats.

“And I say that speaking for President Trump,” Vance stated, “we want to reinvigorate the security of the people of Greenland because we think it’s important to protect the security of the entire world. Unfortunately, leaders in both America and in Denmark, I think, ignored Greenland for far too long. That’s been bad for Greenland. It’s also been bad for the security of the entire world. We think we can take things in a different direction.”

With national security adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright already on the ground, the full weight of the Trump administration’s Arctic pivot is becoming increasingly visible. Whether Denmark and other NATO allies see the move as cooperative or confrontational remains to be seen—but for now, the United States is clearly asserting itself in one of the world’s most contested and overlooked regions.