Old-fashioned “liberals” hit the new-fangled green-driven Left.
Charles Ebinger, directorn of the Brookings Institution’s Energy Security Initiaive writes,
On December 4, Congressman Edward Markey of Massachusetts wrote a letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu questioning the wisdom of exporting large quantities of U.S. natural gas. His concerns were wide-ranging and included the potential price impacts of exports and the residual impact of higher gas prices on electricity generation and manufacturing, the potential for more volatile natural gas prices, and the environmental impact of raising the cost of gas, which he characterized as a “bridge” fuel from coal to renewable energy.
The reality is far more complex. The Energy Security Initiative at Brookings this week released an interim report examining the feasibility of large-scale U.S. natural gas exports. The report shows that there are a range of factors – political, economic, and technical – that will have an impact on the feasibility of natural gas exports. Being an interim report, it has not yet come to any conclusions on the merits of natural gas exports. But that is precisely the point: the issue is too nuanced for a brief analysis. The impacts of exports on domestic gas prices, industry and manufacturing, and gas-price volatility outlined by Congressman Markey and others require more examination…
Congressman Markey has a good point. Exporting natural gas may cause a raise in price in domestic natural gas prices. His reaoning should be applied to all exports. Exporting corn most likely has caused a raise in corn prices. Ford exporting automobiles may raise the price of Ford cars. Thus, using Markey’s logic the U. S. should cease all exports. This should create a lowering of prices for all goods. Unemployment probably would double and that causes prices to fall.
Is the U. S. the only country that elects idiots to public office and then continues to re-elect these fools. Remember Markey was one of the authors of the 2009 Waxman-Markey bill that passed the House June 2009 by a vote of 219-212. If this bill had passed the Senate, the recession we are presently feeling would have been the worst Depression in U. S. history. The future of the country would have been to revert back to the 19th century.
Of course we should export natural gas. We can produce far more natural gas than we practically need and this would mean the creation of hundreds of thousands of high-paying jobs. Ten million cubic feet of natural gas has an export vaue of over $40,000. Producing this amount for export is the same as exporting 5000 bushels of corn or a new full size Ford. The same analogy applies to oil. Four hundred barrels of oil has the same value as a large Ford.
I am FOIA