Gas is golden. And, America is acting like an uncool country indeed. I’m paraphrasing the remarks of Peter Voser, Chief Executive and CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, as reported in an interview with the Wall St. Journal.
Natural gas is a cheap, advantaged feedstock, which can be used for the industrialization of the U.S. again. It can bring manufacturing and petrochemical industries back, and that is where the jobs are. I would find it peculiar if the U.S. [does] not grab this opportunity.
What are the chances the U.S. will grab this opportunity? Obama’s record on grabbing opportunity in hydrocarbon-based energy is drab indeed. The administration prohibits domestic production wherever it can. Look at the Keystone Pipeline, the disapproval of which prevented transport of oil into America and thereby squashing energy independence. Come on, people, how uncool is that?
Voser’s words of opportunity in gas fall on deaf ears. Cheap energy is needed. Gas is cheap. The U.S. has plenty of it within its borders. Also, gas is clean-burning with high hydrogen-to-carbon content. “Advantaged” is the word Voser uses to simplify the quality characteristics of gas. The political powers that be either have no understanding of simple energy economics or purposely deny the country of its own resources. How uncool is that?
Denied also are the jobs that can come from developing natural gas in the United States. Voser pointed to the Midwest—the once prosperous heart of America—where entire industries collapsed from government over-regulation and takeover. Opportunities from gas, in terms of jobs, have outsourced elsewhere, particularly to China. How uncool is that?
Voser cited Nigeria as the largest gas producer in the world while corruption continues to escalate there. “The business climate is going downhill. Where? This is on the corruption side, but mainly sabotage and stealing of crude. This is not a good sign.” Corruption in the U.S. is less the act of stealing than it is the sabotage of leaving abundant hydrocarbon resources in the ground. How uncool is that?
America is being denied the economic and energy opportunity of gas by repression from within. Speaking as one of those economically unhappy Americans, I ask you, how uncool is that?
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