WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) spoke on Wednesday at a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing with U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Samantha Power. Murphy highlighted the role USAID could play in supporting energy security abroad.

On the United States’ reluctance thus far to invest in energy security assistance, Murphy said: “I wanted to talk to you about the topic of energy independence and the way in which this administration thinks about the utility of using grant dollars or financing to help countries break their dependency on neighbors. And of course, I'm thinking first and foremost, about Russia's periphery. This has always seemed to me to be a bit of a blind spot for the U.S. government. We provide a lot of technical assistance on how countries can connect to other energy systems, but we have always been, I think, far too reluctant to put hard dollars on the table.”

After meeting with Prime Minister of Bulgaria Kiril Petkov earlier this week, Murphy highlighted Bulgaria as an example of a country in need of energy security assistance: “Right now, there's a crisis in Bulgaria, as you know, Russia has cut off energy supplies. There's a whole host of ideas on the table to find other avenues for energy import, including U.S. LNG, but there's not a lot of creativity in the U.S. system, beyond advice as to how to help these countries find their next energy source.”

Murphy concluded: “To me, this is the greatest need that exists to stabilize economies right now and Eastern Europe—assistance on the future of energy. And thus far the United States has decided to provide that advice and expertise but not hard dollars.”

You can read Murphy’s full exchange with Administrator Power:

MURPHY: “Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Good to see you, even from a distance, Administrator. I wanted to talk to you about the topic of energy independence and the way in which this administration thinks about the utility of using grant dollars or financing to help countries break their dependency on neighbors.

“And of course, I'm thinking first and foremost, about Russia's periphery. This has always seemed to me to be a bit of a blind spot for the U.S. government. We provide a lot of technical assistance on how countries can connect to other energy systems, but we have always been, I think, far too reluctant to put hard dollars on the table.

“In Russia's neighborhood, we leave a lot of that to the Europeans. But the bureaucracy in Brussels is, you know, sometimes just absolutely overcomeable for many countries that are seeking relatively low cost projects to break away from Russia.

“Right now, there's a crisis in Bulgaria, as you know, Russia has cut off energy supplies. There's a whole host of ideas on the table to find other avenues for energy import, including USLNG, but there's not a lot of creativity in the U.S. system, beyond advice as to how to help these countries find their next energy source.

“So just love a minute or two from you on whether there's more to be done at USAID, whether you need additional authorizations in order to better use and leverage dollars for these kinds of projects.”

POWER: “Thank you, Senator. I'm back not that long ago from Moldova, which is probably the country that most personifies the challenge. I mean, with the amount of energy blackmail going on across Europe, there's nothing like visiting a country that is partially occupied by Russian forces and vulnerable in the natural gas, fuel and electricity domains to that blackmail, to I think, underscore the importance of securing that independence.

“I guess what I'd say is, it really depends. I'd love to just have a more detailed discussion, perhaps with our Energy Envoy, Amos Hochstein, maybe at the table as well, to hear more about what you have in mind.

“I mean, we were absolutely instrumental, at USAID, our energy team, as part of our USAID mission in Ukraine, for example, in you know, Ukraine's decision to and capacity to free itself, to do the tests that you saw in the electricity sphere, to connect itself to Europe, which happened just in the early, it was either several days before the war or just as the war started. And that was years in the making, and lots of programming.

“But it's not hard to infrastructure in the way that you're describing. And I think where my mind goes, is to an, to an entity that I've been spending an awful lot of time working with and through, and that is the Development Finance Corporation, because that and they are looking, for example, in Moldova, to see what kinds of investments they can make. It's not a place, they've done large things in the past. I mean, it had to transition from OPIC to being a Development Finance Corporation.

“It, you know, again, the energy sector, actually, I think, is a place that you have made an exception for them to work. So I think there are, you know, real opportunities throughout Eastern Europe, in particular, but the devil’s in the details, what you have specifically in mind. I’d want to make sure that USAID is the best bricks and mortar agent, you know, for those kinds of investments. Right now, what we do is we embed technical advisors and you know, contract out those energy independence experts who help guide a country toward building, the organic process.

MURPHY: “And let me, and I appreciate that. To me, this is the greatest need that exists to stabilize economies right now and Eastern Europe—assistance on the future of energy. And thus far the United States has decided to provide that advice and expertise but not hard dollars.

“I mean, the sort of food distribution economy is a mix of private sector and public sector participation, but we have made the decision in energy to essentially leave it all in the hands of the private sector, and to use the public sector as a means of providing advice. I just think that's a mistake. I think it's time for the United States to put some hard dollars on the table I think that'd be a wise expenditure of our dollars given how much we're spending on other projects to secure Europe, so I look forward to that conversation with you and others in the administration.”

 

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