Benefits of USLNG Exports
Improving global climate, environmental, geostrategic, and economic conditions.
America began to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) in large volumes in 2016. Now, six years later, the United States has seven large LNG export terminals (in Louisiana, Texas, Maryland, and Georgia), and we are the world’s largest LNG exporter, competing closely with Australia and Qatar. The many benefits of USLNG exports include:
- Mitigating Climate Change
- Lifting People Out of Poverty
- Clearing the Skies
- Creating Jobs & Prosperity
- Assisting America’s Allies
- Improving Global Markets
Mitigating Climate Change. The most urgent and important challenge facing humankind is global climate change. Hundreds of years of industrialization have filled the atmosphere with carbon dioxide (CO2), the most prevalent greenhouse gas (GHG). It is widely accepted that the world’s energy mix must be “decarbonized” to limit climate change, but how this is to be achieved is a matter of debate. While long-term climate solutions unfold, the best interim approach to reduce GHG emissions is coal-to-gas switching coupled with increased energy conservation and renewable energy deployment. USLNG can help.
Lifting People Out of Poverty. While the world deals with climate change, humanity must also address the widespread problem of energy poverty. It is estimated that a billion people have no access to electricity and billions more have unreliable power. In the decades ahead—as global population rises and economic development expands—the world’s demand for energy will grow dramatically. USLNG can replace coal in developing nations to generate low-carbon electricity and to provide clean energy for homes and factories.
Clearing the Skies. Natural gas produces less than half the CO2 of coal to generate electricity, but this is not its only environmental advantage. Compared to coal, natural gas produces much lower levels of conventional air pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, and mercury. Thus, regions with high coal use and serious air pollution problems can “clear the skies” by switching from coal to USLNG.
Creating Jobs & Prosperity. Hydraulic fracturing, horizontal drilling, and other innovations have unlocked America’s vast shale gas resources. As a result, the United States now has enough natural gas to supply our domestic needs for more than a century and sufficient extra to support robust USLNG exports. With the exception of gas-to-electricity, gas demand in other domestic sectors (residential, commercial, etc.) is not projected to increase much in the future. That is why USLNG exports are so important to the oil and gas sector and the broader American economy.
Assisting America’s Allies. In close coordination with our allies in Central and Eastern Europe—who have built new LNG import terminals and gas pipelines—USLNG has helped Poland, Lithuania, and other nations break free of the predatory pricing practices of the state-owned gas monopolist to their East. Beyond Europe, USLNG can and will bring geostrategic benefits to other regions.
Improving Global Markets. USLNG has introduced new business models to the global marketplace, challenging legacy models where LNG is sold under long-term contracts with strict destination restrictions, expensive take-or-pay clauses, and oil-linked pricing mechanisms. In addition, USLNG is greatly expanding global gas supplies, driving down spot prices significantly which benefits everyone.