On a sweltering day in May last year I sat dumbfounded at a US Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee meeting. Pat Outtrim, VP of Cheniere Energy, was arguing for fast-tracking approval of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) exports because it would benefit energy consumers… in Great Britain . A year later and the drum beat for approving LNG export operations is reaching a crescendo. This time it’s spurred by claims that we must save Europeans from the grip of Russia, who is using its position as the primary natural gas provider in Europe to annex Crimea and assert its power in the region. In both cases, the rationale is the same: The US has an over-supply of natural gas—thanks to an explosion of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) for previously inaccessible shale gas—and it’s our duty as international […]