Alaska’s junior Senator, Dan Sullivan (R), made some waves on March 17 in making his pitch for a massive natural gas project in his state. He was asked about whether climate change is a natural security threat, and he answered by arguing that selling more natural gas to Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China would do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (by reducing coal usage) than almost anything else America can do.
Burning natural gas for electricity creates far less carbon dioxide than burning coal or oil, and natural gas has rapidly been replacing coal in U.S. power plants. This has driven carbon emissions to levels lower than even some of the most optimistic projections from environmentalists. Most projections now are for natural gas and renewables to continue gaining market share while coal and nuclear level off at relatively low levels.
Alaska has some of the world’s largest oil fields located on its barren North Slope. Oil from those Prudhoe Bay and Point Thomson fields have been flowing through a massive pipeline across the state since 1977. In all that time, the natural gas produced on the slope has been wasted, shot back into the ground, or used to power equipment up there. Alaskans have dreamed about building a new pipeline to get that gas to market, but the current price tag for the project is $43 billion. Permitting efforts are still underway so the pipeline remains at least a theoretical possibility, and Sen. Sullivan and others continue to push it.
Here in Appalachia, we have natural gas that can easily be connected to a growing system of gathering lines and then rapidly shipped to gas-hungry markets across the U.S, and increasingly across the world. Cimmaron Land has been helping companies acquire exploration and production rights through the whole natural gas boom of the last decade, and we can help you too. Contact us today for more information.