LNG

While the middle class standard of living is stagnant, it is almost providential that new sources of energy have become available through technology. We are in a position to rapidly increase our oil and natural gas supplies by way of fracking and the government is standing in the way. For years we imported LNG from the Middle East and now we can export but the federal government will not issue the necessary permits. Consideration of licenses to export natural gas from the U.S. will have to wait until at least the third quarter, when a study is completed after a delay of several months, according to the Energy Department. These are shovel ready good paying jobs that would help the middle class. Sending gas to Europe would send a message to Russia that they will have some competition and do more to get Putin’s attention than revoking visa’s. Allowing clean coal plants to continue instead of forcing them to switch to natural gas would free up additional supplies. Right now we are closing down clean coal plants and shipping the coal to China to use in dirty coal plants. Opening federal lands to fracking will increase production dramatically. In a Louisiana swamp several miles upriver from the Gulf of Mexico, about 3,000 construction workers are building a massive industrial facility to liquefy natural gas, preparing for a new era when the U.S. will begin exporting energy around the globe. The $12-billion project is one of the largest single industrial investments in the nation, part of a massive transformation of the energy sector that has led to a boom in drilling, transportation and refining from coast to coast. This is all being done in spite of the government interference. We need to all be on the same side.