By Timothy Gardner
(Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Thursday the United States would guarantee supplies of liquefied natural gas to Europe, even amid worries that the booming export industry could boost prices of gas for U.S. consumers.
TotalEnergies (EPA:TTEF) CEO Patrick Pouyanne asked Trump, who was speaking remotely at the World Economic Forum on Thursday in Davos, Switzerland, what he would do if expected growth in U.S. LNG projects boosted the domestic gas price.
He also asked Trump if he would agree to guarantee security of LNG supplies to Europe, which is reducing its dependency on gas from Russia.
"I would make sure that you get it," Trump said, adding that he is looking at speeding up permits for LNG projects even after the U.S. became the world's top exporter of the super-chilled form of natural gas in 2023 under his predecessor.
"I think the more that you do, the lower the price is going to go, and what I'd like to see is rapid approvals," Trump said.
The president on Monday ordered the U.S. Energy Department to resume considering applications for LNG exports after the previous Biden administration froze them. The department this week also extended a comment period on a study on the environmental and economic impacts of the flourishing industry, indicating that approvals would not be immediate.
Some U.S. manufacturing businesses that consume large amounts of gas have opposed the rapid build-out of LNG, worried that it could boost the price for consumers.
Trump also said the U.S. is going to build more power plants amid growing electricity demand from artificial intelligence. "I'm going to get them the approval under emergency declaration, I can get the approvals done myself without having to go through years of waiting."
He also praised coal as a potential backup to power generating facilities. Decades ago coal generated about 50% of U.S. electricity, but it has since dropped to about 16% on concerns about its carbon emissions, and competition from natural gas and wind and solar.
"There are some companies in the U.S. that have coal sitting right by the plant, so that if there's an emergency, they can go to that short-term basis and use our very clean coal," Trump said.
He also said the European Union treated the U.S. badly and made it difficult to get products into Europe, "and yet they expect to be selling and they do sell their products in the United States".