The State Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee recently held a hearing on U.S. liquified natural gas (LNG) exports.
Approximately 22 percent of all domestic natural gas production is produced in Pennsylvania. This is about three-quarters of the gas Russia currently imports into Europe.
Ramping up production could create 200,000 jobs in the Appalachian region over 10 years, according to some industry experts. Pennsylvania boosts an extensive pipeline infrastructure that could easily expand to meet international demand.
Foreign and domestic industry experts testified that increasing LNG exports could reduce harmful emissions at a rate equivalent to electrifying every car in the country, installing solar on every home, and doubling wind capacity.
“What was already an issue was amplified 20-fold with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline last month,” Sen. Gene Yaw (R- Bradford/Lycoming/ Sullivan/Union) said at the hearing. “We can prevent an energy and food supply crisis just by exporting more LNG across the world, and the Marcellus Shale is a key piece of that strategy.
“As long as we are going to wear clothes, as long as we are going to eat food, as long as we are going to drive cars – even electric ones – the demand for natural gas will not disappear, here or in Europe.”