Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has criticized state environmental regulators for blocking oil and gas pipelines and local governments on the West Coast for nixing new liquefied natural gas export facilities. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo Energy & Environment Zinke’s energy export plan knocked as 'harebrained' He cast the idea of using the sites like a former Navy base as a national security matter to ensure the U.S. can supply allies with cheap energy.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke drew immediate flak Monday for proposing to use military bases on the West Coast to export coal and natural gas despite the opposition of environmentally minded state governments — with critics saying it just won’t work.

“It’s really impressive how this administration churns out harebrained schemes for their Department of Cock-Eyed Ideas,” Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington state, a Democrat, told POLITICO. “The president must be getting really bad advice. It’s not going to work. Our clean water and clean air laws are still on the books and will still be enforced.“


In an interview with The Associated Press, Zinke cast the idea of using the sites like a former Navy base on a remote Alaskan island as a national security matter because it would ensure that the U.S. can supply allies with cheap energy. And it would circumvent opposition to new fossil fuel exports in Democratic-dominated states like Washington and California.

“It doesn’t sound logical or fully baked,” Tom Hicks, a former undersecretary of the Navy and now a principal at Mabus Group, an energy consulting firm, said on Zinke’s plan. “It sounds a little half-cocked.”

The bureaucratic and economic hurdles in building the infrastructure needed to turn military bases into export facilities would be difficult to overcome, experts said, and any development would still need the approval of state-level environmental regulators who have stymied other projects.

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Inslee said the federal government had not reached out to his office about the idea, and he couldn’t think of any bases, active or shuttered, in Washington state that would be likely candidates. And he blasted Zinke and the Trump administration for pursuing coal exports despite warnings from the Department of Defense that climate change is a growing national security threat.

Zinke has complained that coastal states are harming their neighboring states by blocking fossil fuel export projects, such as the Millennium Bulk Terminals’ proposed export facility in Washington that would ship coal from Wyoming to Asia. And Zinke, along with Energy Secretary Rick Perry and chief White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, has increasingly criticized state environmental regulators for blocking oil and gas pipelines and local governments on the West Coast for nixing new liquefied natural gas export facilities.

“It’s in our interest for national security and our allies to make sure that they have access to affordable energy commodities.” Zinke said in the interview. He suggested the former Adak Naval Air Facility in Alaska could be used as an LNG export point that could receive Alaskan-produced gas by barge.

But Adak’s location on a remote island located near the western tip of the Aleutian Islands is in a region battered by storms, and natural gas must be turned into either LNG or compressed natural gas before it can be moved by ship.

“It sounds like a bit of a stretch,” Sarah Emerson, managing principal at oil and gas consulting firm ESAI Energy, said of the Adak idea. “The Adak base is on an Aleutian island, so you would also need an undersea [pipeline] connection. I think this would be a hard sell for the oil and gas industry.“

The list of military bases with access to deep water ports that sit far from population centers in case of accidents is a short one, according to Hicks. Even if one could be found, the economics of exporting coal “would flame them in the face,” he added. Foreign demand for U.S. coal is expected to wane in coming years, according to government forecasts.

Even Zinke’s proposal of using closed bases likely wouldn’t fly, Hicks said.

“Just because it was once a military base that’s closed, it doesn’t mean Department of Defense has anything to do with it. I don’t even know what the role of Interior would be at that point. Usually the land is turned over to the state,” he said.

An Interior spokesperson did not respond to a series of questions on how far along Zinke’s plan is, whether he had consulted with states, and whether the government had interest from the private sector for the plan. A spokesperson for the Commerce Department — which Zinke told the AP was involved in his proposal — referred questions to Interior.

Spokespeople for California Gov. Jerry Brown did not return calls for comment. A spokesman for Alaska Gov. Bill Walker, who has been promoting an Alaska LNG project, did not immediately respond to questions.

Still, the administration may feel the need to do something to counteract the way its own trade policy has antagonized China, one of the largest potential customers for U.S. gas and coal, said Leslie Palti-Guzman, president of natural gas consulting firm Gas Vista.

“The timing of this announcement is interesting,” Palti-Guzman said. “It happens in a context of escalating trade war with China, which could negatively impact the US push for ‘energy dominance.’ Hence, the U.S. government is on the defensive, doubling down on its interagency commitment to removing barriers to energy developments and trade and to promoting exports of U.S. energy resources.”