Sanders: New scheme pushes LNG back into the local spotlight

By Al Sanders

Posted February 11, 2012 at 3 p.m.

http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/feb/11/sanders-new-scheme-pushes-lng-back-into-the/

For everyone in Ventura County who worked against the proposed BHP Billiton's liquefied natural gas project, our hopes that we had seen the last of these mega projects have now ended.

A new scheme to revive the concept is upon us with one major revision. Rather than importing LNG to supplement our energy grid, the plan, incredibly, is to export our natural gas after liquefaction to other countries.

One major argument previously used by LNG importers was that the country had an energy shortage. They claimed that importing LNG would increase available energy and result in an importation of jobs.

OK, then the exportation of energy must be viewed as an exportation of jobs. Although it seems that no one would support this concept in light of the current recession, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) proves us wrong.

Despite the obvious harm to domestic manufacturing and the environment, FERC has already issued permits to Cheniere, a Houston-based energy company, to export LNG through a terminal in Louisiana. Two other Gulf Coast companies have also applied for export licenses.

FERC'S own reports predict a 54 percent increase in natural gas prices due to exports.

Another application to export natural gas via the Coos Bay, Ore., LNG facility, drives this point home. Natural gas now being routed from Wyoming to California would be diverted, instead, to Japan, China and other Pacific Rim nations willing to pay the price.

Oregonians hated sacrificing their environment for the benefit of Californians when the plan was to only import LNG. Now that the plan has changed to benefit foreign nations the state of Oregon has become even more active in its opposition.

Our country has been lucky in that domestic natural gas supplies have increased tremendously, thereby lowering costs. This has helped families to heat their homes, manufacturers to maintain productivity and with the conversion of coal-fired electrical plants to cleaner natural gas plants.

Our economic advantage in terms of natural gas supplies has moderated our disadvantage on importation of petroleum products. This has prevented the USA from suffering worse economic effects in this recession. Why then are administration decision-makers willing to give away this one economic advantage?

Rory Cox, a senior energy consultant with San Francisco-based Pacific Environment, said that the global market of about $14 per unit as compared to about $3 per unit in the USA is at the center of this movement. But this low domestic price is not without cost to our environment.

Increased use of the controversial practice of fracking, drilling of wells in environmentally sensitive habitat areas and increased high-pressure gas pipelines are significant problems. Our national willingness to overlook these problems may diminish if the ultimate beneficiaries are foreign economies to the detriment of our own.

During his State of the Union speech, President Obama said that we must consider expansion of all energy alternatives. Jan. 26, he traveled to Nevada to push for conversion of large trucks to use natural gas to help reduce dependence on foreign fuels.

The president celebrated the policy by United Parcel Service to purchase new trucks equipped to use natural gas and the opening of a new fuel station between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. But these progressive moves will not be followed if the administration does not promise to keep natural gas prices low.

Energy companies now claim a 100-year supply of domestic natural gas. Selling off large volumes of this supply will diminish that number and just doesn't make sense.

The possibility of the failed Ventura County area LNG import projects coming back to life as export projects cannot be eliminated. But as of today, our interests should be to help fight the Coos Bay project. California legislators must act now to insure that we do not throw away our present advantage with natural gas supplies.

Locally, county and city governments must revise their planning documents so as to prevent exploitation of loopholes that can be used by large energy conglomerates. Increasingly, it becomes necessary to learn more about where our energy comes from and the total costs to transport it to our use.

It's time for all of us to support an "America first" policy in developing energy resources.

Al Sanders of Oxnard is president of the Ormond Beach Observers.

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