“Dow recently withdrew in a huff from the National Association of Manufacturers because NAM to its credit continues to support gas exports.”
“Thus does big business lock arms with the likes of the Sierra Club, whose real goal is to shut down all fracking in a way that would force Dow, Nucor and Alcoa entirely overseas. Remember what Lenin said about businessmen and the rope to hang themselves?”
Read more at the Wall Street Journal ($ubscription may be required).
When you burn a 100 thousand tons of natural gas a year, depressing prices really helps your bottom line.
Dow has no drilling interests, so they have no reason to want the price of natural gas to go up and every reason to keep it down..
Natgas is a chem industry feedstock. Blocking exports helps maintain the US glut that keeps prices low.
Why Dow would oppose natgas exports is not immediately obvious.
Protectionism is a form of cronyism. It is not an element of free-market economy or of capitalism. It’s easy to understand why any business would favor policies that keep its costs lower but we also hope that business leaders will have longer sight than this.