Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Oregon LNG terminal plans reverse from importing to exporting gas

EXCERPT:
"If natural gas producers and LNG terminal backers have their way, Oregon could become a significant hub in exporting domestic gas to Asia, joining a nationwide push that could have a meaningful -- and according to critics, disastrous -- impact on the price of natural gas for U.S. consumers.

With domestic reserve estimates surging because of successful drilling in tight shale formations, gas producers and terminal developers are pushing hard to export what they describe as surplus gas."

"This is the bastard marriage of our oil industry and the financial industry," said Paul Sansone, a former energy company executive and LNG opponent who lives in Gales Creek. "All along, the goal has been getting gas to be like oil; to break up these regional markets and have a world price so they can speculate on it."

 "I am already on record opposing the export of natural gas from Alaska," said Sen. Ron Wyden in an e-mailed statement. "I have the same concerns today that exporting natural gas will benefit gas companies at the expense of the American consumer."

COMMENT:
To further compound the damage to American's rights, industry and the U.S. government call citizens "unpatriotic" who oppose natural gas development. Today, we see the full intentions of industry and our government.....to become the world's largest natural gas exporter.  This has nothing to do with patriotism, but everything to do with money.  The ruse of "patriotism" that is being used to hush "the people" from speaking out and stepping up to stop the damaging drilling that is destroying the last vestiges of land and polluting our water is yet another act making history wherein Earth's resources are for the "taking" by those in power.

It is time to act, in solidarity!



July 16, 2011
 Ted Sickinger

Two years ago, energy companies trying to build terminals to import liquefied natural gas to Oregon laughed at the notion of using their projects instead to export burgeoning supplies of U.S. and Canadian gas to lucrative markets in Asia.

The idea, LNG backers said, was a conspiracy theory concocted by environmentalists and landowners who didn't want pipelines laid across public and private lands.

Today, those opponents can safely remove their tinfoil hats.

If natural gas producers and LNG terminal backers have their way, Oregon could become a significant hub in exporting domestic gas to Asia, joining a nationwide push that could have a meaningful -- and according to critics, disastrous -- impact on the price of natural gas for U.S. consumers.

 With domestic reserve estimates surging because of successful drilling in tight shale formations, gas producers and terminal developers are pushing hard to export what they describe as surplus gas.
 Two LNG terminals on the Gulf Coast have already applied for -- and in one case received -- regulatory approval to retrofit their idle facilities for export. In British Columbia, energy companies are contemplating multiple liquefaction terminals to export gas produced from that province's shale formations.

Those same trends could breathe new life back into Oregon's LNG proposals -- projects that many left for dead due to collapsing domestic gas prices and stiff local opposition....continued.....