Staff Report
Published Feb. 11, 2009
A state committee studying the feasibility of natural gas exploration in South Carolina’s coastal waters will have a public meeting Thursday in North Charleston.
Anyone can speak about the issue at the meeting, which starts at 7 p.m. in the Trident Technical College Nursing Auditorium in the 920 building. Public comment is limited to about two minutes.
The 20-member committee, created in 2007 by an act of the S.C. General Assembly, will write a report on the issue in the coming months.
According to the legislation, the committee is to consider implications relating to energy, economic development, tourism, fishing, the environment, agriculture, manufacturing, public safety, national security, employment and the impact on state and local economies.
The North Charleston meeting follows four meetings the committee held in Columbia in late 2008. Those meetings included testimony from stakeholders, state agencies, experts and others.
The President just left Elkhart Indiana the area with the highest unemployment in the nation and the home of the Recreational vehicle. A few months ago we were focusing on the SUV's and American made cars because of the low mileage and large size. We keep talking about the lack of jobs in the nation and stimulating the economy. The one thing that is common to all of the problems that we have in this country is energy cost. We have the answer that will solve all of our ills, we just don't have the will to develop it. The US has discovered a way to inexpensively get natural gas from formations in this country, so much that we are not importing CNG and we are thinking about exporting CNG. The price of CNG-natural gas was as high as $14 per mmbtu 2 years ago, the forcast for 2009 is about $4 per mmbtu. The conversion from mmbtu's of natural gas to equivalent gallons of gasoline is as follows; 1 mmbtu divided by 7.7 or about 52 cent per equivalent gallon. Gasoline is selling at approximately 4 times that $2 per gallon. We want to create jobs right, lets start building the infrastructure for natural gas dispensing. There are gas stations on every block in most major cities, every one of these stations will have to be modified. This will employee engineers, technicians, pipe fitters, welders and craftsmen of all types. We have no conversion shops for existing vehicles, more jobs for skilled and unskilled workers. We will need to manufacturer the equipment to dispense natural gas, and safety equipment that is unique to the natural gas industry, more jobs for US manufacturers. We must stop talking about this an do it, this is the revolution that can bring us out of the depression that we are in and we can stop importing oil from all over the world and use the resource the we have in abundance. This is an investment that will pay for itself over time, so we the people will get our stimulus money back. Please help me to get this word out, this is common information that can easily be verified for accuracy. American trucks and cars that are sold in countries such as Mexico and Brazil can be purchased to run on both gasoline and natural gas, why aren't they sold here. The primary reason is that we don't have the dispensing infrastructure. I would love to discuss this further, but more than that I would love to see some action with this stimulus money. I have other energy related ideas that will over time bring a return on the government's investment and create jobs immediately for many people. Walter Anderson wwaa@mindspring.com
