A new fuel fix: boon or bane?
The US increases natural-gas imports to meet energy demands. Will it create a new dependency?
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Of course, at 185 feet high and nearly a football field wide, the LNG tank would also contain the energy equivalent of a sizable nuclear bomb. That's why many Fall River residents, the city's mayor, and other politicians oppose the Weaver's Cove facility on grounds it would be an ideal terrorist target.
In the nearly 80 years that Lillian Correia has lived in the little blue two-story home across from a defunct textile mill in Fall River, this daughter of an Azorean immigrant mother never lived in fear for her life. Now she's not so sure. In front of her home, in the middle of her flower garden, stands a bright red and white "No LNG" sign - one of a sprinkling of such signs up and down North Main Street. It's why her dining room table is spilling over with fliers she is mailing to neighbors informing them of an LNG protest rally and picnic. "We realize the area needs more energy," she says. "But we're against putting this LNG facility in the middle of this heavily populated city.... To be honest, I'm really not so sure our country needs this thing as bad as they say we do."
One of the hottest battles in Congress is over a provision of the new energy bill that would grant most authority for siting LNG facilities to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and others are fighting to have state and local authorities retain a substantial share of control. By the end of the month, FERC is expected to vote up or down on the new LNG facility in Fall River.
Caught between high gas prices and concerns about terrorism, the US has energy alternatives - albeit controversial ones. Renewable energy and energy efficiency could cut natural-gas prices by 20 percent and save the nation $100 billion within five years, says the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, a think tank. "The US won't be able to avoid at least some use of LNG," says Steven Nadel, executive director of ACEEE. "But we have to ask ourselves how dependent do we want to become on foreign energy?"
In December, the National Commission on Energy Policy released a report calling for more imported LNG to meet rising natural-gas demand as well as a host of energy-saving measures. But there are few signs the energy-saving proposals are being picked up, says Susan Tierney, an NCEP board member.
Scenarios involving energy efficiency often have been met with skepticism. The nation's energy architect, Vice President Dick Cheney, called energy efficiency "a sign of personal virtue" in 2001, but otherwise dismissed the idea that it was a true alternative to energy development. In an April speech, President Bush declared that "our dependence on foreign energy is like a foreign tax on the American people." But moments later he was pushing to "expand our use of liquefied natural gas" by building more coastal LNG terminals.
Meanwhile, Royal Dutch/Shell is reportedly looking at scenarios two decades from now, when natural gas may dethrone oil as the world's most important energy source.
• Last article in an occasional series. Parts 1 and 2 appeared May 5 and 19.
