Blog Nine: U.S. Gas Tantalizes Europe, but It's Not a Quick Fix

Summary: This article went into detail about how the United States would potentially supply much of Eurasia (particularly Eastern European countries, like Hungary, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Greece) with natural gas. The idea is nice and almost valiant of the United States, but it comes with a steep price. There are currently workers in Louisiana that are building a terminal in order to send natural gas anywhere on the globe, and it will be completed by the end of 2015. However, this obviously doesn't solve the immediate issue. Gazprom raised the price for gas in the Ukraine up 80% this past week, which is only adding to the tension between these two countries. While there are bills already in the process of being approved, it could cost nearly $7billion (or more...) to build the terminal, and $100million just to find suitable sites for these terminals, besides the one currently being built. As stated earlier, the building of the terminal(s) can take several years, but this is after construction has begun. It may take months or even years just to get the approval to build these terminals.

Analysis: I wrote a blog about an article regarding Russia's withholding gas from the Ukraine a few weeks ago. Basically, Russia was using the natural gas supplies that they serve much of Eurasia with (through their company, Gazprom) as a threat, such as "if you do/don't do this, we will raise the prices or put you on a stiff budget of natural gas." So I'm glad to see somewhat of a "follow up" article about this. Personally, I think the gas terminal construction idea is a terrible one. I'm against natural gas, because it's really a dirty form of energy. I think we should start making more moves towards renewable energy. Not only are they better for the environment, but you have to ask yourself - when was the last time you heard of two (or more) countries fighting over solar power? Or wind power? You can't. Maybe I'm missing something, but those are resources available to any and every one. If we began implementing these resources, and did so on a global scale, people wouldn't have to pay for gas anymore (or at least what they had been paying, since they wouldn't use as much) and people wouldn't necessarily become as sick due to smog, poor air quality, unsafe water, etc.

"U.S. Gas Tantalizes Europe, but It's Not a Quick Fix"

This article was published in The New York Times on 8 April 2014.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/08/business/energy-environment/us-gas-tantalizes-europe-but-its-not-a-quick-fix.html?ref=science