Global energy markets have been screaming for America’s natural gas bounty. The rise of fracking has caused prices stateside to plunge to about a fifth the level in Europe and about an eighth the Asian price.This is obviously unstable; the substitution cost of natural gas is obviously far more than the current price, and uses for natural gas will proliferate. LNG export is one such use, perhaps the largest - but it’s hard to see how anyone can sell coal when natural gas is cheaper. It should take over all stationary fuel applications such as electric power generation and furnaces; it has already been a boon to steelmakers.If you can make money shipping LNG abroad, it should be economical to power ships traveling to/from America with American LNG. It’s possible to fuel diesel engines with a lean mixture of natural gas, and that should make it practical to run diesel locomotives and long-haul trucks and busses on LNG. Short haul trucks and busses could use CNG economically. There is a crying need for infrastructure for getting NG to all of those markets in order to ameliorate our need to import petroleum from overseas; it would even be worth a small premium to the country to obtain the independence that would avail us.
And Obama does not desire that.I would recognize, however, the downside possibilities of terrorism against LNG facilities. It might be all too possible to "blow them up real good."
If, and I say IF, the expanded uses for NG are allowed to bevelop (with all the infrastructure needed for its use as both a power generation fuel and motor transport) then the possibility exists that we may yet come out of this long depression we face. But now, the failing obama regime has to get into place its various schemes to assure an artificial scarcity, and thus, continue to choke productivity in this country (though it won’t be choked elsewhere).
First, is to find a conclusive reason to deny the further exploitation of the technique of fracking. Like, it might cause earthquakes. Or the gas escapes upward into the water table and natural aquifers. Or the gas escapes to the surface and causes flame-offs and/or unexpected explosions in diverse locations. Never mind that these are events of extremely low probability, all they need do is use scare tactics. And lots and lots of very bad science.
Next, is to slap a completely inordinate tax on the transportation and consumption of natural gas, or to make the permits for the construction of infrastructure so complicated and expensive only a few will attempt to get the work done. And those few will, of course, be large contributors to the corrupt politicians who would try to regulate the use of natural gas down to a bare minimum.