U.S. Manufacturers Oppose LNG Exports

Huntsman Corporation announced that it has joined a coalition of U.S. manufacturers and others opposed to proposals from LNG exporters to permit the unlimited export of American natural gas.

The coalition, America’s Energy Advantage, seeks to promote rational energy policies designed to use America’s newly developed shale-based low cost natural gas to provide the economic basis to spur significant new investment in American manufacturing and its related industries and services.

Since 2000, American manufacturers, farmers and consumers have been hit with four massive price shocks in the cost of natural gas, each resulting in an economic impact contributing to the loss of countless American jobs. With the advent of America’s development of shale-based natural gas, this volatility has tempered dramatically, and the U.S. now enjoys a domestic natural gas market that exhibits the availability and stability that make investment in new manufacturing possible, leading to the creation rather than loss of skilled, well paid jobs.

Huntsman is among those many companies planning to now expand its operations in the U.S. in light of its stable, lower cost natural gas market, having recently committed over $150 million in capital to new projects here and evaluating additional projects in the U.S. worth approximately $250 million more.

Peter Huntsman, President and CEO of Huntsman, stated, “We think it very short-sighted and bad public policy to allow our nation’s natural gas advantage to be stripped and sent overseas to build a new manufacturing base that would otherwise be built here in the U.S.”

He continued, “Completely unfettered U.S. exports may enrich a few LNG exporters in the short term, but real, sustained and broad-based growth in the U.S. economy will come from a balanced approach that considers the needs of American manufacturers and consumers, and ensures that natural gas can be exported without undermining this emerging sunrise for American manufacturing and all the supporting industries and services. Our nation must not squander this opportunity.”

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LNG World News Staff, January 22, 2013; Image: CLNG