AAEA has been working very hard to get the attention of liquefied natural gas (LNG) companies in order to get approval for needed natural gas projects to fuel American households and utility company power plants. Although we are not crazy about using natural gas as a 'baseload' electricity generation fuel (we prefer nuclear for baseload because it is emission free), it is excellent for heating homes and for cooking. It is also a very good fuel for gas turbine generators for production of 'peaking' electricity needs. We do not have enough natural gas in the USA to satisfy demand and we have are already using all that Canada can provide. Drilling offshore and on federally owned land is limited and so imported LNG is the only reasonable alternative left to provide the gas we need. AAEA has monitored, participated in, and promoted LNG projects all over the United States, but the companies have refused to listen to our advice and the projects have either been killed by local governments or have stalled. We hope that the owners of pending projects will avoid the pitfalls of companies that have failed to build their billion dollar projects by not listening to the most insightful environmental group in the USA.
Well what is AAEA advocating that the companies are ignoring you might ask? We are happy to answer. LNG projects have a funny way of finding minority communities. Although we are amazed by this phenomenon, environmental injustice issues do not have to be project killers if companies are prepared to take actions to appropriately address these issues. Even in one case where the rich are claiming environmental injustice (Malibu), appropriate accomodations can be made. AAEA recommends two strategies for getting project approval: 1) ownership partnerships and 2) property purchases. These projects usually come with proposals for pipelines. Consider allowing minority ownership of the pipeline. If a project is proposed near a community, offer buyouts to property owners. Finally, states must accept the fact that these facilites must be located somewhere, so they must resist the temptation to surrender to every NIMBY complaint lodged anywhere, anytime, by anyone, all the time. All parties, except selfish, extremist NIMBY protagonists, must be satisfied in order to get project approval. Now if a company would rather have the project killed than partner with a minority company, then we hope the project fails. But if you really want the project, then call us. We know how to do this. (More AAEA & LNG)
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