POLITICO features the Atlantic Council event Empowering America: How Energy Abundance Can Strengthen US Global Leadership in an article about Senators Murkowski and Warner unveiling a new energy security report:
Murkowski’s not content to just shepherd the biggest energy bill in years — she’s also teaming up with Sen. Mark Warner to help unveil a new US energy security report coming out today. ME got a peek of the report being released by The Atlantic Council, which says that given “instabilities” posed by the Middle East, Africa, and a more aggressive Russia and China, the United States should wield its energy abundance to deepen ties with allies. Among the nine recommendations in report, at least one shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s followed Murkowski for the last several weeks: Lift the crude oil export ban. Still, the report highlights a few less-talked-about issues, including an argument for concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations without restrictions on US energy exports, such as the Energy Department’s national interest determination on liquefied natural gas. “We believe that US gas supply is now so robust that all LNG exports should be deemed to be in the national interest, regardless of free trade agreement status,” the report states. It also recommends non-Keystone XL pipeline connections between the U.S. and Canada to “connect Canadian gas sources to US LNG export facilities, and reduce methane emissions in the Bakken by capturing supplies that could be connected back to the Canadian pipeline system.”