Russian Nat Gas has to be imported to New England but let’s get on Merkel

Trump huffs and puffs over Merkel’s arrangement for one big beautiful pipeline to run from Putin’s domain into the heart of Germany, guess who is dependent on the very same Nat gas from Putin? Massachusetts for one, and the rate the environmentalists are going, more of us to come. I had picked this story up last Winter as it looked like some Americans fingers might get a nip for lack of heat.

An excellent example of just what has been allowed to happen that puts Americans at risk by a few nitwits. There, I said it and I cut to the chase.

Even the Boston Globe opined that “Massachusetts’ reliance on imported gas from one of the world’s most threatened places is also a severe indictment of the state’s inward-looking environmental and climate policies.”

This winter’s unprecedented imports of Russian liquefied natural gas have already come under fire from Greater Boston’s Ukrainian-American community, because the majority shareholder of the firm that extracted the fuel has been sanctioned by the US government for its links to the war in eastern Ukraine and Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea. Last week, in response to the outcry, a group of Massachusetts lawmakers, led by Senator Ed Markey, blasted the shipments and called on the federalgovernment to stop them.

From the post from the Boston Globe and well worth a read Our Russian ‘pipeline,’ and its ugly toll

Better yet, the Jones Act precludes Americans helping out other Americans:

The U.S. has several LNG export facilities that are already operational or will come online in the coming years. Why can’t we ship American LNG to Boston?

One reason is an antiquated federal law from 1920 – the Jones Act – that prohibits cargoes from being transported between U.S. ports unless they are carried on American-flagged ships.

The stupid thing:

There are about 150,000 miles of oil pipelines and more than 1.5 million miles of natural gas pipelines in theUnited States. ALREADY! 

The U.S. Energy Information Administration recently announced that in 2017, for the first time since 1957, the U.S. exported more natural gas than it imported.

Yet, even as we become a global energy superpower, political barriers prevent us from maximizing the benefits of the shale revolution.

Earlier this year, New England — located just a few hundred miles from the Marcellus Shale, one of the world’s largest natural gas fields — was forced to import a cargo of Russian liquefied natural gas. This was necessary because anti-energy activists have convinced local elected leaders to block new energy infrastructure, including pipelines that could bring American gas to the region. This is making households in the Northeast more dependent on imported energy, and forcing them to pay among the highest energy bills in the country. More at Washington Examiner

Here are a couple of sites where one can find out pipeline locations down to the county.