In Speech on Mexico Trip, Gov. Christie Lays Out Vision for Energy ‘Renaissance’
MEXICO CITY — Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey offered a prescription for what he called a “North American energy renaissance” in an expansive speech here, calling for an end to Washington’s 40-year ban on crude oil exports, faster approval of natural gas pipelines between the United States and Mexico, and construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast.
On the opening day of Mr. Christie’s trip to Mexico, a rare journey abroad as he considers a run for the presidency, he abandoned his trademark swagger for a data-filled, policy-rich and humility-heavy approach.
He quoted the writer Bill Bryson and the energy expert Daniel Yergin. He offered lavish praise for the market-oriented overhauls of the Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto. And he took pains to present himself, over and over, as an eager student prepared to absorb the lessons of his Mexican counterparts.
“I want to listen,” Mr. Christie said at one point. “I have much to learn,” he declared at another. (In one speech, Mr. Christie used the word “listen” four times.)
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey arrived in Mexico on Wednesday as part of a three-day trade mission.
Video Credit By Christian Roman on Publish Date September 3, 2014. Image CreditHenry Romero/Reuters In calling for an end to the prohibition against most crude oil exports, Mr. Christie is siding squarely with the energy industry, which views the rule as an outdated act of economic protectionism that is hampering the United States economy and increasing global fuel prices.
His remarks came a day after the chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, Ben van Beurden, issued a similar appeal, telling a conference in New York that easing the restrictions would ensure the future of North American energy production and “make the global energy system much more stable.”
The United States prohibited most crude exports to conserve domestic oil reserves after the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s. But over the past few decades, American production of oil and natural gas has risen drastically, transforming the United States into a world leader that can afford to send its domestic energy overseas, experts say.
That, Mr. Christie said, “has changed the strategic equation, making our continent less vulnerable to imports from the Middle East or unstable sources elsewhere.”
Although careful not to mention President Obama by name, Mr. Christie offered a forceful critique of the president’s delay in approving the Keystone XL pipeline, asserting that it had hurt American-Canadian relations, squandered a chance to lower energy prices and produced a “chilling effect” on similar investments across North America. “It should have been done a long time ago,” Mr. Christie said. “It should be done today.”
Mr. Christie traveled here on Wednesday with a coterie of aides and a surprise guest: his oldest son, Andrew, who forfeited his final week of summer vacation to accompany his father to Mexico. The younger Mr. Christie, a junior at Princeton who is said to have a keen interest in public policy, joined his father for lunch with the United States ambassador to Mexico and the Mexican ambassador to the United States. He lugged a thick white briefing binder as he shuttled from meeting to meeting.
Latin America has emerged as political magnet for the likely field of 2016 presidential contenders. (Rand Paul, the Republican senator from Kentucky, just returned from Guatemala.) But Mr. Christie was supposed to have Mexico all to himself this week. On Wednesday afternoon, he learned that monopoly would end: Word arrived that Hillary Rodham Clinton would fly to Mexico City on Friday, putting the two in the same city.
Might there be a bipartisan summit meeting in the Latin American metropolis, a show of domestic political good will on foreign soil?
No, aides to Mr. Christie said. There would not.
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