Shell has come up with one of the worst proposals I've heard in a while. It wants to build an LNG plant in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana. The plant would suck 100 million gallons of water per day from the Gulf, use it to raise the temperature of the liquefied gas (which is 260 degrees below zero), and then return the now-frigid water to the Gulf.
That's an insane idea for so many perfectly obvious reasons that the chances of it actually happening are effectively nil. Still, you almost have to admire the supreme insouciance of the people who came up with it.
Friday, February 25, 2005
What Could Go Wrong?
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8 comments:
Maybe they could mix it with some nuclear plant's cooling tower water, to even things out.
Hey, is this becoming an environmentalist blog? That'd be cool, but I might have missed you announcing the shift.
Mary,
No, it's not an environmentalist blog. Actually, I really don't know what kind of blog it is! I'm interested in pretty much everything, which makes it hard to stick to one topic...I've often wondered if readers find it frustrating.
I guess if anything, it's kind of an economics blog...maybe? In the sense that faulty or wrongheaded economic models seem to drive everything from environmental destruction, to shoddy and corrupt news media, to public health considerations, to political decisions. If there's any method to my madness, it's probably in gathering a variety of examples of what I consider to be false economy, in both the practical and philosophical senses of the phrase.
Originally, I assumed I'd concentrate on the misuse of language, media criticism, stuff like that...and throw in a bit of longwinded philosophical maundering to amuse myself. But I just don't have the discipline to stick to it, and I also tend to have a sort of reductionist mentality about problems. After a while, everything starts to seem linked...
Frankly, everything is linked: you, me, Nipsey Russell, Ruth Bader Ginsberg...
Din't see anything in that article about hurricanes. Hmmmm.
I love stopping by and reading what you have to say. I find blogs that only post on one topic a little like a broken record. Why have the same conversation everyday? The world presents us with so much information all the time, it seems crazy to process it through the same filter-- like religion, economics, environmental, or political. Changing filters gives the blog its kaleidoscope dazzle.
And besides, you're right, it is all linked.
Rexroth's Daughter
I think that's the one my boss's (well, one boss) husband is working on.
No, I'm not kidding.
Well, when I was a pastor in rural Illinois, and hated Wal-Mart, one of my favorite families loved it, because he'd lost his coal-mine job (when it shut down; "dirty" coal that wouldn't sell) and she got a job there. Kept 'em alive....
Life....what're ya gonna do?
By "working on," I should clarify, that he's one of the executives in charge of getting it approved and built.
As I say....
the chances of it actually happening are effectively nil.On the contrary, the chances of it happening are almost 100%. First, open loop terminals of the sort under discussion are prevalent throughout Japan, which imports around 97% of its natural gas as LNG, and Western Europe which receives LNG imports from Nigeria and Qatar via open loop terminals. The UK's largest LNG import terminal has a substantial open-loop component.
Second, the Shell plants have already been permissioned by the Coast Guard and MARAD -- state authorities lack jurisdiction to intervene per federal law (the deep water port act.)
useful primers here:
http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/dhc/lng/lngpowerpoint5_13_04.ppt
http://www.central-bank.org.tt/rnd/ebarticles/ebaaug991.pdf
Well, look on the positive side. All that cold water will help dissipate hurricanes faster...
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