Three Myths About the NAT GAS Act

ATR ^ | 2011-09-22 | Christopher Prandoni

[92nina]

Today, the Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on energy tax policy and prospective tax reform. During the hearing—which lasted nearly 4.5 hours—the most interesting debate surrounded the NAT GAS Act, legislation that would provide tax credits to consumers who purchase natural gas cars and construct natural gas infrastructure.

Proponents of HR 1380, the NAT GAS Act, constructed and leaned on three straw men. The bolded sentence represents the NAT GAS Act advocates’ arguments—my rebuttal follows.

1. Increasing demand for natural gas via the NAT GAS Act will increase American natural gas production. Unfortunately, this theory only works in a vacuum. A vacuum that is absent government’s prohibitive exploration policies and uncertain regulatory environment. The hostile-to-hydraulic fracturing Environmental Protection Agency is looking to impose regulations which will surely hamstring the burgeoning industry. States like New York have banned hydraulic fracturing completely. In reality, the NAT GAS Act would likely induce demand that outpaces supply. This would raise prices for other, less politically connected, consumers of natural gas—like American manufacturers.
2. The NAT GAS Act will make America more secure. America imports a majority of its oil from our North American neighbors, Canada and Mexico. The amount of oil we import from unfriendly governments, that perhaps may be sponsoring terrorist activity, is not insignificant but minimal. The NAT GAS is estimated to displace 100,000 oil-based cars over the next five years. This will reduce the amount of foreign oil we important but is not substantial enough to starve OPEC or Venezuela of revenue. After all, Venezuela and the countries that constitute OPEC export arguably the most valuable resources in the world—they don’t have trouble finding buyers...

Read more: http://www.atr.org/three-myths-nat-gas-act-a6471#ixzz1Yn0Olqhl

[92nina]

The unwarranted NAT GAS Act will neither incentive production of natural gas nor make America more secure

Take this article and others I found to the fight to the Libs on their own turf; put the Left on the defensive at Digg and at Reddit and in Stumbleupon and Delicious

[CPT Clay]

Bump to read later

[Smokin' Joe]

Thanks, CPT! The real problem is that a lot more electricity is going to be generated using Natural Gas after the Obamajihad against coal.

With the stroke of a pen the Obamites or others could control the supply of natural gas by stopping new production--the reserves deplete fairly fast as it is, and the absence of new drilling offshore hurts, too.

Also, much of northern flyover country uses natural gas as a home heating fuel. This is a part of the cocuntry where winter can kill you in half an hour, with common winter temperatures well below zero (ND, Eastern MT, MN, etc.) heat is not a question of comfort, but a life or death matter.