Answer this question: How do you feel about the creation of a large new industry in the United States that would create tens of thousands of new jobs, vastly increase exports, create hundreds of billions of dollars of new government revenues and increase the rate of growth of the Gross Domestic Product by between one half and one percent per year? Is this:
a) a very good thing?
b) something you could take or leave?
c) something to be avoided at all costs?
Now, add in the following fact: the new industry will result in a reduction of air pollution and a lessening of carbon emissions by about 30%. Does that change your view?
If you are like most Americans, you think that the new industry is truly a very good thing. On the other hand, if you are part of the liberal Washington elites you want to avoid this new industry at all costs.
The new industry, of course, is the export of natural gas. Right now, natural gas prices in America are substantially lower than they are in the rest of the world. The USA has reserves which are so large and production which has soared so rapidly that American prices for gas are only a fraction of the prices in China or Europe. Indeed, permits are being sought by a number of companies for the right to export American natural gas to these other countries. Think of what this would mean.
1. In states like Pennsylvania, Texas, North Dakota, and Ohio where there are large gas fields, the number of people employed in drilling, producing, and transporting of natural gas will soar.
2. Land owners under whose property the gas lies will get royalties for all the production that comes from the wells on their land.
3. Shipping companies that transport natural gas and dock workers who load these ships will get steady and well paid jobs.
4. The money paid by China, Europe and elsewhere will flow into the USA rather than to countries like Iran or Libya that produce oil around the world.
5. The political power of states like Iran that support terror will be reduced.
6. The gas will replace coal at power plants across the world. It will also replace gasoline in vehicles around the world. These replacements will cut the resulting pollution and carbon footprint by at least 30%.
This new industry seems like a totally winning plan, right? The problem is that the left in Washington does not agree. Here is an article by the AP which talks of fears of an environmental disaster that will result from the export of natural gas. There would be (gasp!) more fracking if the gas is produced. According to the AP, this could lead to pollution (although every study done has debunked that fear as unfounded.) The biggest fear of the left, however, is that production of inexpensive natural gas to feed the world's need would prevent the development of solar and wind energy. They believe that the world has to transition to the much more expensive "renewable" energy sources. The left does not care if that transition results in the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. They say that we have no choice but to do so. And when an opportunity comes along that would allow huge advancements both in reducing pollution and creating jobs and wealth in America, the left does not like it because it does not fit neatly into their narrative of renewable energy.
We need leaders who look to achieve things that will ACTUALLY help Americans. Blindly following ideology will never work.
a) a very good thing?
b) something you could take or leave?
c) something to be avoided at all costs?
Now, add in the following fact: the new industry will result in a reduction of air pollution and a lessening of carbon emissions by about 30%. Does that change your view?
If you are like most Americans, you think that the new industry is truly a very good thing. On the other hand, if you are part of the liberal Washington elites you want to avoid this new industry at all costs.
The new industry, of course, is the export of natural gas. Right now, natural gas prices in America are substantially lower than they are in the rest of the world. The USA has reserves which are so large and production which has soared so rapidly that American prices for gas are only a fraction of the prices in China or Europe. Indeed, permits are being sought by a number of companies for the right to export American natural gas to these other countries. Think of what this would mean.
1. In states like Pennsylvania, Texas, North Dakota, and Ohio where there are large gas fields, the number of people employed in drilling, producing, and transporting of natural gas will soar.
2. Land owners under whose property the gas lies will get royalties for all the production that comes from the wells on their land.
3. Shipping companies that transport natural gas and dock workers who load these ships will get steady and well paid jobs.
4. The money paid by China, Europe and elsewhere will flow into the USA rather than to countries like Iran or Libya that produce oil around the world.
5. The political power of states like Iran that support terror will be reduced.
6. The gas will replace coal at power plants across the world. It will also replace gasoline in vehicles around the world. These replacements will cut the resulting pollution and carbon footprint by at least 30%.
This new industry seems like a totally winning plan, right? The problem is that the left in Washington does not agree. Here is an article by the AP which talks of fears of an environmental disaster that will result from the export of natural gas. There would be (gasp!) more fracking if the gas is produced. According to the AP, this could lead to pollution (although every study done has debunked that fear as unfounded.) The biggest fear of the left, however, is that production of inexpensive natural gas to feed the world's need would prevent the development of solar and wind energy. They believe that the world has to transition to the much more expensive "renewable" energy sources. The left does not care if that transition results in the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. They say that we have no choice but to do so. And when an opportunity comes along that would allow huge advancements both in reducing pollution and creating jobs and wealth in America, the left does not like it because it does not fit neatly into their narrative of renewable energy.
We need leaders who look to achieve things that will ACTUALLY help Americans. Blindly following ideology will never work.
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