Vance falsely claims only 'details' now stop $54 billion for gas line

Vice President J.D. Vance is set to continue the Trump administration lies about the Alaska LNG gas pipeline while campaigning for Sen. Dan Sullivan, claiming that only ‘details’ have to be worked out.

South Korea denies that any decision has been made about any investment because it does not know if the project is commercially viable.

Last week Donald Trump claimed in the Oval Office that South Korea had agreed to provide $54 billion, the full cost of the project, trying to set up Sullivan to portray the Alaska LNG project as finally getting the money needed to make it happen.

“Over $50 billion signed by the president of the United States and the president of Korea last week and announced today with all of us,” Sullivan said last week.

“Thank you Mr. President!” Sullivan said on social media last week. “Glad we could get this across the finish line for Alaska!”

That was pure election flapdoodle from Sullivan, who is trailing Democrat Mary Peltola in the campaign and wants to claim the gas line as his greatest accomplishment.

The gas line is not even at the starting line. Korea is not paying for it.

At Monday’s event in Fairbanks, Sullivan claimed “we’re headed back to a million barrels a day through TAPS,” which is far from certain. He also falsely claimed, “We are building a gas line, with a spur line to Fairbanks.”

Then he briefly led the crowd in chanting “Build the Line! Build the Line!”

Vance told the Fairbanks crowd the Alaska LNG project is the “single greatest priority for energy dominance in the United States of America.”

He claimed that Trump is making a “very simple proposal” to Korea and “a ton of other countries all over the world that are desperate for Alaska natural gas, desperate for Alaska energy.”

His comments about what Trump is demanding did not make a whole lot of sense and are inaccurate.

“You have easy access to that energy, but you’ve got to help us build it. And if you’re not going to help us build it, then you’re going to pay a big fat tax on the energy that you’re bringing into the state. Bring it in from Alaska and we’re gonna help you today,” Vance said.

There are not a “ton of countries” desperate for Alaska gas because of the cost of construction.

Trump threatened to double tariffs paid by Americans on goods imported from Korea after that nation said it had not agreed to pay $54 billion to build the project, as Trump claimed.

It’s also not true that minor “details” are the only thing standing between Alaska and the gas pipeline, which is what Vance claimed before leaving Washington for his campaign visit to Fairbanks. There are $54 billion worth of details.

On social media, Vance claimed “The Trump administration is ensuring investment goes to Alaska!” with a photo caption that referred to the $54 billion “investment” as approved.

“Well the pipeline is something that we really want to see happen. And a lot of our Asian friends want to see happen it as well,” Vance told reporters. “It’s not just the South Koreans. The Japanese would love to see this pipeline. A lot of the East Asian economies that have suffered from higher natural gas prices would love to see more American gas flowing into their economies.”

"I think it's something that's going ⁠to happen. Obviously, you still got to work out ​some of the details, and the South Korea you know ⁠have spoken to that," Vance said. "But when there's a demand for this stuff, and there ⁠really is strong demand for American natural gas, I think ⁠we're ⁠going to be able to get it done," he added.

Wanting to see it happen is one thing. But no one wants to pay for it, notwithstanding the lies from Trump.

Why is the U.S. Senate seat in Alaska competitive? a reporter asked him.

Vance, who likes to say historically, gave a long know-nothing answer that revealed what he does not know about Alaska.

“If you look historically actually Alaska, it’s one of the reasons why I love it. I’ve never been there myself. I’m really looking forward to it. But it’s a very interesting state. In very deep red years, Alaska is competitive. In very deep blue years, Alaska’s still competitive. So I think it’s just a reality of the politics of the state. They obviously have the kind of weird ranked choice voting system that I don’t fully understand. But you know I think that whether this was gonna be a blue wave or a red wave year you’re gonna have a competitive senate race in Alaska. That’s been true historically. And I suspect it’s gonna be true this year too,” Vance said.

Asked about using public money for ads promoting Trump before the election, he said it was a great idea. He claimed the ads are not partisan.

“If you look historically. Go back to the Obama administration with the Affordable Care Act. You have the people’s government using tax dollars to advertise about what the government is doing. It’s part of actually having living in a constitutional republic. You have to be honest with the American people about what you’re doing, about what’s going on. And part of that is getting out there and telling the message. So I don’t think there’s anything unusual or unorthodox about it. I’m sure that some people probably don’t like it. But if you look at the message of those advertisements, they’re not partisan. They’re not, you know, it’s not like we’ve advocating for a particular candidate. We’re trying to tell a story, I think, about how great the United States of America is,” Vance said.

The New York Times reported later that “President Trump reversed course on Monday and announced that his super PAC would now pay for the television ads promoting him that have been airing nationwide at taxpayer expense.”

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