The US needs a significant amount of liquefied natural
gas as a "cushion" against higher gas prices in the short-term, and
the Bush administration believes LNG can be imported for less than $4/MMBtu, a
senior Energy Department official said Wednesday. Under Secretary of Energy
Robert Card said LNG would help stem the rise of gas prices in the US, which are
now high at around $6/MMBtu and could damage the economy. "This is big deal
in our system. The economy is not set up to deal" with current natural gas
prices, Card said in a speech to Resources for the Future, a think tank. He
noted high prices especially hurt chemical companies who use gas as a feedstock.
There are some drawbacks to LNG for the US, Card said, including a major
Alaska gas pipeline desired by many policy-makers that would have to compete
with LNG. "That's going to be hard to do," he said. In addition,
importing more LNG to the US is a security risk because it would make the
heating and electricity sectors dependent on foreign supplies.