OCB:
“Since the LNG you picked up was probably from Alaska and the rest of the US is supplied from the oil compact states, I don’t see that your solution has much bearing on the USA today. We don’t need LNG. We have gas in the pipelines.”
Ummm, no we don’t. That’s why Cove Point, Elba Island and Boston all built LNG facilities back in the 70′s…to import LNG, (from Algeria, at the time).
George Bush (41) was big into that trade with his El Paso LNG company. IIRC, he had 3 tankers running, and had ordered at least two more, but Avondale Shipbuilding screwed up the tanks on the newbuilds,(El Paso used prismatic tanks, rather than the sphericals favored by Energy Transportation…mainly because at the time Avondale didn’t have “Goliath”, the crane at Quincy Shipbuilding that lowered the spherical tanks into the Aquarius hulls). So they made PL-480 grain bulkers out of them,(the Welfare of the US Maritime World).
And then a combination of NIMBY and the Algerians hiking the price for their gas pretty much put the kibosh on that for awhile.
But the trade is on its way back. Cove Point has or is in the process of reopening, and I sailed past a brand spankin’ new LNG exporting facility outside of Lake Charles LA.
