More on LNG

[Eugene Coyle <eugenecoyle@xxxxxxx>]

Natural gas supplies are tight in the USA.  Why?  A discussion I'll duck today.

But supplies are tight.  Fortunately for the big oil companies, they have huge gas fields shut-in around the world, in places where the domestic demand is trivial.  If only they could sell that gas in the USA!!  It is close to worthless where it is.

Greenspan jumped into the issue last year, suggesting that we'd better start importing a lot of LNG.  There are multiple proposals for new terminals in California, the Gulf of Mexico coast, New England, Baja California.

I'll paste below a Providence Journal story of 3/24/04 which reports the eagerness of the Governor of Rhode Island for one or two new LNG terminals in his locale.

At the same time, there isn't much political gain in arguing for renewable energy, better architecture, conservation of whatever kind.

So, on we will go, burning what we can burn.

Gene Coyle





Carcieri tells Senate panel of need for LNG projects

04:20 PM EST on Wednesday, March 24, 2004

By JOHN E. MULLIGAN
Journal Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Warning that rising energy costs are driving jobs away from New England and the nation, Governor Carcieri declared strong support today for new and better liquified natural gas storage facilities in Providence and the nearby Massachusetts communities of Fall River and Somerset.

The Republican governor, a former business executive, told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that he thinks the top domestic issue facing the nation is the damage that tightening energy supplies are doing -- and will do in the coming years -- to the economy.

In New England, where the growing popularity of natural gas for manufacture and power generation has raised demand in recent years, Carcieri said a supply crunch this past winter came close to creating a crisis.

"One would think that this combination of high demand and intermittent supply shortages would create an outcry for more natural gas production,'' Carcieri said. "It doesn't seem to have. Unfortunately, it may take a disaster before some in our nation get serious about this problem.''

Carcieri said some of the local political opposition to proposed LNG tanks in Fall River and Somerset is "a knee-jerk" reaction ''to safety fears that the Coast Guard and other authorities can more than adequately address."

Carcieri also pointed to what he called "false choices'' between adequate energy supply and environmental protection. He said both needs can be accommodated in such planned projects as the conversion of a LNG tank at Fields Point in Providence to take supplies from tanker ships.