Wow. Just imagine if we had some natural gas to spare. [sigh]
If we end up supplying the Euros with gas, they better be forced to pay a very pretty penny for it.
We do have natural gas to spare. Lots of it. The shale play drilling is the cause of our rapidly approaching energy independence. The oil produced from the gas wells is reducing our need for imported oil. Unfortunately the low price of natural gas in the US caused by the massive over supply is making it less feasible to continue drilling. Drillers are concentrating on areas with wet gas to get the propane, butane, ethane and pentanes that accompany the methane for another revenue stream.
The solution is to build LNG facilities and start dumping that surplus gas in Europe thereby beggaring Russia. Putin will then be known as .... kaputin.
We don't have the facilites to liquify it or the LNG tankers to ship it. At the other end Europe doesn't have enough refineries to process the LNG imports sufficient to replace Russian gas. Any alternative to Russian supplies is years away.