Export Delusions: Why the rush to export natural gas is a fool’s errand
LNG exports have become a hot-button issue and enmeshed with the fate of an energy efficiency bill and a vote on approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.
LNG exports have become a hot-button issue and enmeshed with the fate of an energy efficiency bill and a vote on approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.
There is one segment of U.S. industry that ought to be cheering for expanded U.S. natural gas exports–though I doubt that its leaders will be offering their support in anything above a whisper. The renewable energy industry would benefit from higher natural gas prices.
As U.S. natural gas prices flirt with the $4 mark, some skeptics of the so-called shale gas revolution think prices are headed much higher. Such a move would, not surprisingly, seriously undermine the official story that the United States has a century of cheap natural gas waiting for the drillbit.
With U.S. natural gas production having risen more than 25 percent from its nadir in 2005, natural gas producers are pushing for an end to limits on U.S. natural gas exports. Trouble is, the United States remains an importer of natural gas, and estimated resources have been slashed dramatically.