U.S. gas exports not a quick fix
By Clifford Krauss, News York Times
HOUSTON — As congressional pressure builds on the Obama administration to quicken gas exports to Europe to reduce its dependence on Russia, it may be tempting to gaze upon a marshy, alligator-infested Louisiana inlet of the Gulf of Mexico.
There 3,000 workers are installing a huge set of turbines, pipelines and refrigeration units, building a terminal that will send American natural gas around the world by the end of next year. By 2017, the facility built by Houston-based Cheniere Energy could handle roughly a sixth the amount of gas that flows from Russia to Europe every day.
The Cheniere plant will be part of a new surge of liquefied natural gas supplies coming from not only the United States but also Australia, Africa and the Middle East. That surge, perhaps along with increased production in Europe itself, promises to keep the Continent flush with non-Russian natural gas at the end of the decade.
But for the short term, the United States can offer little hope for Europeans eager to diversify their gas sources as Russia occupies Crimea and may threaten other parts of eastern Ukraine.
I am wary of the issues the pending sales of US natural gas to Europe to thwart a Russian money and influence grab is going to cause.
Our own long term dependence on middle east oil and the resultant decades of conflicts and wars should tell us it is not going to be that easy on many fronts.
We have touted fracking/shale gas and other developments as a way to ensure energy indepencence for the US into the forseeable future, yet we are preparing at top speed to begin the dismanteling of that independence before we even achieve it by shipping “surplus” non-renewable energy around the globe to make a few quick bucks.
What is it we fail to understand about the simple concept that non-renewable resources have no surplus selling a non-renewable resource to the highest foreign bidder is cutting your own throat?
Of course the current politicians only are concerned about the next election, not the future of the country.