President Obama said that the U.S. might be able to help stop the regions growing energy demands by giving liquefied natural gas, which some U.S. businesses and environmentalists oppose. Obama's Energy Department must decide whether to approve more than two dozen applications for natural gas exports to countries that don't have a free trade agreement with the U.S.
I expect the Obama administration to reject these applications. We must first form free trade agreements with these nations before we participate in trade we typically discourage. The energy department must not hold double standards; trading resources with these countries may help them, but what is the cost of that? If free trade agreements were to arise between us and these nations then I would agree to trading with them.
I feel that exporting gas is simply an inevitable part of the energy boom that this country has had in recent years. We have oil, let's profit from it and trade with these nations, if theses countries set reasonable tariffs or better yet no tariffs then we should export oil to them. Once these nations realize that we can fill their energy demands they will be more inclined to enter into trade agreements with the US. Our energy boom is good fortune, now lets use it and become and energy power throughout the world. HOWEVER, most oil rich nation's policies are dominated by wealthy energy companies, we must make sure that the nation benefits from our oil instead of wealthy corporations who salivate at the chance to become oligarchs.
Economically, it is unfair for us to hold developing nations to the same green standard as us. It is also foolish when you look at the numbers. Environmentalists need to (I believe) lighten up in that area. This can really help those countries, but we should weigh the costs and benefits to us.
