The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board urged President Donald Trump on Friday not to get involved in what they called a "boondoggle" of a liquefied natural gas project in eastern Africa.
The project is run by the French company TotalEnergies, and backed by the U.S. Export-Import Bank — but there are numerous red flags that have caused the British and Dutch governments to pull out, and, the board argued, the Trump administration should follow their lead.
"The project is a calamity waiting to happen," wrote the board. "The region is prone to political instability, so much so that the Mozambique government last decade enlisted the Wagner Group, Russia’s mercenary outfit, to assist with security. TotalEnergies paused the project in 2021 after attacks by Islamic insurgents in the region. A human-rights group last month filed a criminal complaint with the French counterterrorism prosecutor’s office accusing TotalEnergies of being complicit with war crimes by Mozambique soldiers who were trying to put down the insurgency."
TotalEnergies denies the allegations, said the board, and some have argued they were cooked up by "the climate lobby" to put down fossil fuels — but that doesn't matter, the board argued, because the "project’s risks are incontestable" as violence erupts in Mozambique yet again.
"CEO Patrick Pouyanne is trying to undermine U.S. LNG growth and European sanctions on Russian gas," argued the board, noting that Pouyanne has stated that if Trump is "pushing to abandon Russian LNG quicker, it’s because somewhere he knows that it will boost prices ... We must keep the diversity of our supplies.”
"He no doubt worries that Europe’s plan to wean itself off Russian gas will hurt his risky investments in a country where Mr. Putin can ruin a business on his political whim," the board concluded. "Why would Mr. Trump finance another one of the Frenchman’s dubious bets?"