Posted on 01/22/2014 5:21:36 PM PST by Hojczyk
If you want to know just how bad an idea it is for America to ship “fracked” natural gas to overseas markets, travel the 65 miles from the White House to a place called Cove Point in southern Maryland.
Sound good yet? There’s more: The Cove Point plant in Maryland is just one of more than 20 such “liquefaction” plants now proposed—but not yet built—for coastal areas nationwide. They are intended, as an emerging facet of U.S. energy policy, to double down on the highly controversial hydraulic fracturing drilling boom across the country.
But like the Keystone XL pipeline for tar sands oil and the proposed export of dirty-burning coal through new terminals in the Pacific Northwest, this liquefied gas plan is bad in almost every way.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
I would rather we put chemical plants here, and ship refined chemicals rather than raw materials.
Magical Marxist Musings
We would hardly need to buy from ME and South American commie nations who hate us.
I swear some of these environmental activist groups must be on the take from Saudi Arabia.
The fuel must come from somewhere. Why should it necessarily come from the ME?
Does that make environmentalists sleep better at night?
Here in Washington state the stooped enviros keep trying to stop the coal trains that run near my home many times a day.
But in reality, they cannot stop the trains going north to Bellingham. All they can do is stop the shipping plant from being built in Bellingham and instead being built in Vancouver, B.C.
Same amount of trains and so-called dust, just lost revenues for the state. The state whackos like to drive out all the industry and then wonder why their taxes and food costs increast to cover the shortfall.
McKibben is using a discredited study that claims that methane was being leaked at every stage of natural gas production. The natural gas industry has pointed out that methane is the product, so it makes no sense to have leaks.
He also throws in the “over a 20 year period” weasel word at the end. Methane doesn’t stay in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide, so it’s lifetime effect on warming is far less than McKibben claims.
He really jumps for some strange arguments for an environmentalist, such as claiming the aluminum industry doesn’t favor exports. One can almost always find some industry that’s for and against every policy.
I’m in the minority among freepers in that I think global warming is potentially a serious issue. But I just find McKibben to be a complete embarrassment to environmentalism.
Whenever the Left doesn’t like something it’s “highly controversial” but killing babies and taking away self-defense tools from people is “common sense” in their estimation.
Why would Saudi Arabia or Russia want us to compete?
And when these same groups donate to the DNC they get around the pesky problem of illegal campaign donations for other countries..
And how does Bill McKibben know this? Why, he's an environmental journalist, that's how. Exactly what is an environmental journalist anyway? Is he a scientist who writes about his profession? No, he has a degree in journalism, not science. But, he's an activist, don't you know. Working to make a difference.
He doesn't like the Keystone pipeline either, imagine that. According to Bill McKibben, we should all be living in caves, subsisting on nuts and berries and lighting our world with tallow candles. Except for him, of course. Environmental journalists need internet access, and air conditioning, and microwave ovens to spin their propaganda pronouncements. You don't expect him to suffer, do you?
It's a wonderful thing, being an environmental journalist. No need to clutter your brain with facts or science. Simply accept the cult dogma and sally forth to convert the masses and demand that the politicians submit to your demands. Makes you feel real important, and really, really smart.
Exporting LNG is an economic weapon that can stop Russia from modernizing their military, cut the flow of cash into the Middle East and eliminate some of the funding for terrorism.
Now that the sun has calmed down and the temperatures are dropping, a few years of that and the enviro-liberals on the East coast will be beaten in the streets by the freezing and broke low-information rabble that they had used so well a few years before.
It just KILLS me that some of the most liberal people in the Northeast are burning OIL to heat their homes. This is inherently insane.
This is the only country where this is done on a large scale.
Another thing to consider: With the high cost to liquefy and ship overseas... we will still maintain about a $5 per MM BTU price advantage here.
Ie: We STILL will have an advantage in energy cost that will continue to bring manufacturing BACK to the US.
The Northeast switched from coal to oil heat at the end of WWII as coal was smokey, oil less so, and they didn’t know there was usable natural gas in abundance nearby. With fracking, that gas is available, but they lack the pipelines to bring it to cities and their city neighborhoods often are not piped for gas - that will come as the cost savings of gas will push the distribution system.
For those who want to see a 6 minute video showing how horizontal drilling and fracking is done, Northern Gas and Oil has done a great one.
This includes a piece on how water tables are protected and contamination is avoided:
http://www.northernoil.com/drilling-video
Knowledge is power, keep the link and pass it on.
I gotta chuckle a the picture of progress - obliterating the incandescent bulb in order to return to the gaslight days of the 1800’s. Tesla will be rolling over in his grave.
Now, I have heard of natural gas => fuel cell => heat for hot water, electricity for home appliances. Why don’t we as a nation, corner the market for manufacturing them, give ourselves the energy advantage first, THEN export remaining gas surplus? This is Japan’s entry into that fray - http://www.gizmag.com/ene-farm-home-fuel-cell-panasonic/25856
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