Sec. 2. Findings

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Congress makes the following findings: The United States currently has an approximately 100-year supply of natural gas. Natural gas will see increasing global demand and use beyond 2050. United States natural gas production increased by 54 percent from 2005 to 2017. At the same time, total United States carbon dioxide emissions decreased by 14 percent. The natural gas share of electricity production increased from 19 percent in 2005 to 32 percent in 2017. Between 2005 and 2019, carbon dioxide emissions from the United States power sector declined by 33 percent, with fuel switching to natural gas, accounting for more than half of those reductions.

During that period, the United States economy grew by 20 percent, United States energy consumption fell by 2 percent, and per capita emissions dropped to their lowest levels since 1950. Between 1990 and 2018, the natural gas and oil industry reduced methane emissions by 23.6 percent through voluntary actions, while expanding production by 70 percent. Demand in the United States and globally for clean-burning natural gas and liquefied natural gas will continue to increase over the next several decades, even as renewable energy resources increase.

Demand for natural gas is rising in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly as countries look to make emissions cuts and transition from higher emissions fuel sources. The expanding number of infrastructure projects in the Indo-Pacific region, carried out under the Belt and Road Initiative, is leading to higher emissions in the region. According to the International Energy Agency, The number of countries and territories with [liquefied natural gas] import terminals has grown from nine in 2000 to 42 in 2020. .

Further, the International Energy Agency has found that transition[s] in Asian gas markets [are] even more important in the wider context of global clean energy transitions, where natural gas will be required to make a more flexible contribution as the share of variable renewable energy sources grows and coal use progressively declines . The United States saw a 66.3-percent increase in liquefied natural gas exports and an 11.2-percent increase in oil production in 2019. As a result of the natural gas revolution, the United States petroleum trade deficit in dollars fell from about $320,000,000,000 in 2007 to about $3,000,000,000 in 2020, as net imports declined.

Australia and the United States are both important global energy exporters and thus have a shared interest in supplying the growing energy demand in the Indo-Pacific region. Japanese companies have long invested in United States liquefied natural gas projects, including the Government of Japan shifting from relying on liquefied natural gas from the Middle East to liquefied natural gas from the United States. The People's Republic of China currently is one of the largest financiers of overseas energy and greenhouse gas intensive projects.

The People's Republic of China also uses those investments to project its influence and secure critical minerals supply chains and infrastructure.