Americans Need More Oil and Natural Gas Pipelines
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2019/04/24/americans_need_more_oil_and_natural_gas_pipelines.htmApril 24, 2019
...We surely know that a lack of pipelines in the six New England states, New York, and California have installed much higher energy costs. These states, for instance, have the highest electricity prices in the country, at least 50% above the national average. Their goal has become an insidious chain reaction: to increase energy prices.... to lower demand... to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
This is a national concern because more money is the basis of American health and economic prosperity. Nearly 75% of U.S. economic growth is contingent on consumer spending, so higher cost energy for an indispensible good such as electricity inevitably equates to "Americans having less money." Higher cost energy is bad for our families because it reduces their discretionary income, which is the basis of their health: "Rich Americans live up to 15 years longer than poor peers." Higher cost energy is bad for our businesses because it negates the competitive advantage that the U.S. shale revolution has provided them....
...Further, what makes their anti-pipeline stance so illogical is that these states themselves still use oil as their primary transportation fuel and gas as their primary source of electricity - overwhelmingly so. So by blocking pipelines they simply have to turn to outside sources of supply, too often foreign sellers.
For example, Saudi Arabia is now the main source of foreign oil for California, lacking the pipelines and policies to connect with neighbor Canada. And for the past two winters, Everett LNG terminal in Boston has been taking gas imports from Russia because it doesn't have the pipeline capacity to get flowing shale supply from Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio during the high demand season. This is about as non-sensical as energy policy can get. Russia is a sanctioned U.S. country and nearby Appalachia now produces 37% of U.S. gas, holding the Marcellus shale play - probably the largest gas field in the world. ...
