Many international natural gas buyers are hoping that a Trump victory will end the Biden administration’s pause on new liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminals, as Aura Sabadus, an editor at ICIS – a leading chemicals and energy intelligence provider, told The Hill.
But the renewable industry worries that only the Biden administration will take steps to work with European governments to ensure consistent standards for technologies ranging from electric vehicles (EVs) and wind turbines to hydrogen and biogas.
“Standardization is the holy grail of industry — whoever sets the standard will have the monopoly position,” Sabadus said. “So regulatory alignment would really benefit both markets,” she said, allowing the sector to “speak with one voice.”
Within Europe, she said, many countries don’t have the same kind of EV chargers — and so far, the only place where European and U.S. governments have synced up is on the heavy-duty chargers used by electric trucks and buses.
The trans-Atlantic wind industry also doesn’t follow consistent standards, and attempts to set up a “clean hydrogen” industry will be hampered if governments on both sides of the ocean don’t agree on what makes hydrogen clean.
A potential Trump victory — and the possibility that the Biden climate stimulus package will be hollowed out — threatens to hamstring the renewables industry just as it’s getting off the ground, Sabadus said.
But another risk comes from Europe, where populist parties are gaining in strength ahead of the June elections for E.U. Parliament — parties like Germany’s AFD or France’s National Rally that often back fossil fuels like gas and coal over renewables, and that Sabadus said are less likely to prioritize shared standard setting with the U.S.
Even if Biden wins, she said, “there is a risk that these populist parties, similar to the Trump administration, could reverse some of these achievements in terms of pushing the transition further.”
