I missed this when it came out, but Michael T. Klare has a great piece in The Nation about "The Geopolitics of Natural Gas." It's short -- I recommend reading the whole thing. A few tidbits:
[The U.S.] now relies on natural gas for approximately one-fourth of its total energy supply, more than from any source except oil. ... Natural gas provides approximately 14 percent of the energy used to generate electricity in this country, 45 percent of home heating fuel and 31 percent of the energy and petrochemicals consumed by agriculture and industry. ...
The United States currently relies on North American supplies for most of its gas, but with those reserves being depleted at a rapid pace and few untapped fields available for exploitation, need for gas from other regions is growing ...
...
A key factor in the geopolitics of natural gas is the heavy concentration of reserves in a relatively small number of producing countries. All told, the top ten gas producers harbor 76 percent of the world's proven reserves, while the top five--Russia, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates--hold nearly 67 percent. This means, of course, that these countries are in a very strong position to control the global flow of gas and to influence market forces.
Great -- more reasons to be beholden to dictatorships.
Fossil fuel subsidies dwarf clean energy subsidies; Obama wants to eliminate them
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jdhlax Posted 8:51 am
07 Feb 2006
Jeff Hoffman
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ninshubur Posted 9:03 am
07 Feb 2006
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jimbeyer Posted 7:34 am
08 Feb 2006
Our demand is increasing, but we can't match it with supply. Canada doesn't want to send us much more of theirs, so we will have to import more soon from outside of our continent.
But that's a problem too. LNG import facilities are a classic NIMBY issue -- no one wants them in their port.
Fertilizer (ammonia) is no longer made in the U.S. due to the cost of natural gas.
The answer (for the time being) is that natural gas -fired electrical plants will close down, reducing their drag on demand. They will be replaced with coal burning versions, so the GHG problem will suffer more.
Now if we processed biomass to produce methane, then we'd actually be feeding an existing market experiencing shortages. Imagine that!
Build plugin hybrids that run on renewable methane. That's all that's needed.
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Mr M Posted 2:31 am
09 Feb 2006
That's why the companies won't tell you what their leakage rates are.
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