….or moron depending what you want to believe. Interesting article from yesterday Pioneer Press.
Posted on Tue, Nov. 08, 2005
High heating bills? Thank Greenpeace
MARK YOST
If you were wondering how the planet suddenly ran out of natural gas as you sat shivering in your house with the thermostat set at 62 so you could preserve a modicum of your retirement money, just look at a 2003 study from the National Petroleum Council (www.npc.org). You’ll learn that there’s plenty of natural gas, much of it right here in the U.S. The problem is that environmental groups won’t let us get at it.
Today natural gas provides about 25 percent of U.S. energy needs, generates about 19 percent of electrical power, and is used for heating and cooking in more than 60 million homes. The greenies reluctantly embraced natural gas about a decade ago because it is undeniably cleaner and more efficient than oil or coal. But at the same time they were pumping up demand for natural gas they also were restricting supply by blocking any new drilling or added infrastructure to deliver already discovered reserves. This led to the high prices Minnesotans and other Americans are seeing today, something that was predictable two years ago.
“There are laws and regulations that unnecessarily hinder pipeline and infrastructure siting or interfere with the functionality of the market in ways that lead to inefficiencies,” the NPC said in its September 2003 report, “Balancing Natural Gas Policy.” “Overall, these conflicting policies have contributed to today’s tight supply/demand balance, with higher and volatile gas prices.”
This is nothing new. Alaska has been trying for three decades to build a pipeline that would deliver an estimated 35 trillion cubic feet of known natural gas reserves from North Slope fields to us here in the Midwest (annual U.S. residential consumption is about 5 trillion cubic feet). The continental shelves just off our coast are estimated to hold about 58 trillion cubic feet. Preliminary estimates of the Rockies see 11 trillion cubic feet.
Undeterred by these uncomfortable facts, environmentalists continue to thwart new production and infrastructure at every turn.
When the greenies’ favorite bogeyman, President Bush, invaded Iraq, they started carping again about our need to wean ourselves from “foreign” energy sources, i.e., Mideast oil. We need, they said, to develop reliable domestic sources of energy that don’t require us to invade oil-rich nations to guarantee supply.
What, may I ask, would they call 93 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in Alaska and off-shore? Adding insult to injury, their obstructionist policies and draconian regulations are driving U.S. energy companies to cultivate foreign sources of natural gas — exactly what the greenies said they didn’t want — when we have so much natural gas here that it’s practically bubbling out of the ground.
“North America is moving to a period in its history in which it will no longer be self-reliant in meeting its growing natural gas needs,” the NPC said quite presciently in 2003. “Government policy encourages the use of natural gas but does not address the corresponding need for additional natural gas supplies.”
In the perfect world of the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, it’s all off limits. Last year the Greenpeace ship MV Arctic Sunrise sailed to the Coronado Islands off Baja California. That’s where ChevronTexaco would like to build a liquid natural gas facility to accept LNG tankers, something Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan encouraged two years ago. No way, the greenies said.
“The islands are an important habitat for wildlife, home to one of the most diverse seabird colonies, gray whales and harbor seals,” Greenpeace said. “All face devastation from the construction of a LNG terminal.”
This, in short, is why Minnesotans will pay $13 per million BTUs this winter for natural gas while the Chinese will pay less than $5 and Australians less than $4. The problem is not too much demand, but unnecessary and illogical restrictions on supply.
So the next time you get a mailing from Greenpeace or the Sierra Club (or the Democratic Party), send it back with a note that reads, “I already gave,” and include a copy of your utility bill.
Yost is associate editor of the Pioneer Press editorial page. Write him at [email protected] or at the Pioneer Press, 345 Cedar St., St. Paul, MN 55101.
We have given Chinese manufacturers of copper clad laminate a number of price increases, and they have not blinked, and accepted them. We can make more money selling to them than the US market! They in turn come here and sell us finished goods cheaper than we can make them in the US. Gotta love free trade!