Rivers must be included in US gas infrastructure development: Tom
Ridge
Pittsburgh (Platts)--28Oct2013/627 pm EDT/2227 GMT
Any discussion of how to move large volumes of US shale gas to demand
centers should include not only pipelines and trucks, but also the
nation's waterways, Tom Ridge, a former secretary of Homeland Security,
said Monday.
Developing inland ports, such as those along the Ohio River, is "a huge
opportunity," Ridge said at the Platts Appalachian Oil and Gas
conference in Pittsburgh. "If we look at what natural gas can do for the
regional economy, what we see now is just the tip of the iceberg."
Ridge, who also was a former governor of Pennsylvania, is now CEO of
Ridge Global, a firm specializing in global trade security,
infrastructure protection and other issues.
On the conference sidelines, Ridge said Pennsylvania "has access to the
North, South, East and West, but it also has access to river ports, such
as those along the Ohio River, [that] reaches the Mississippi River."
"That's another piece to this, and to effectively market that, it will
need public-private collaboration," said Ridge, also a former governor
of Pennsylvania. "One of the major challenges to shale development is
infrastructure. If we're going to develop the natural gas industry, we
need to look at distribution systems -- that's pipelines, trucks and
rivers."
Still, waterways are only one part of moving shale gas, which Ridge sees
as a key element in both national security and achieving energy
independence.
"A high percentage of energy usage in New England is [liquefied natural
gas]. There are concerns about the security of importing LNG," Ridge
said, noting the importance of making sure such facilities are secure
from threats, as well as the political risk of relying on sources of
energy from outside of the US.
"Wouldn't it be wonderful if the ports in Boston were exporting LNG to
the Middle East, rather than importing it," he said.
--Stephanie Ritenbaugh,
stephanie.ritenbaugh@platts.com
--Edited by Valarie Jackson,
valarie.jackson@platts.com
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