Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) is simply natural gas in its liquid form to allow it to be transported.  LNG is the same natural gas more than 63 million American homeowners use every day, just in a condensed form.  The transformation of natural gas to LNG is accomplished through a cooling process. Natural gas becomes liquid when it is cooled to -260° Fahrenheit. Liquefying gas reduces its volume by a factor of more than 600. Think of the little sponge like figures you can buy at hobby stores.  Wrapped in cellophane, the animal shaped packages of special foam are just a few inches across.  Take off the packaging and put them in a container of water and they grow to almost real life size.  In simplified terms, this is what happens to natural gas.  It is liquefied, transported and warmed back up to its natural volume.

Why go to all of that trouble?  LNG allows Americans to use foreign sources of natural gas to make up for that 16% shortfall between domestic supply and demand. Even with technology, an increase in demand will mean an increase in imported natural gas.  The U.S. gets a majority of its LNG from Trinidad, Tobago, Qatar, and Algeria. Other foreign sources are Nigeria, Oman, Australia, Indonesia, and the United Arab Emirates.  In its liquefied form, natural gas can easily be transported on specially outfitted cargo ships.   Once it reaches the United States, LNG is unloaded from ships at import terminals where it is stored until it is warmed back to natural gas and sent through pipelines for distribution to businesses and homeowners.

In many ways, LNG is safer to transport than crude oil. LNG is an odorless, non-toxic and non-corrosive liquid, and if spilled, LNG would not result in a slick. Absent an ignition source, LNG evaporates quickly and disperses, leaving no residue. There is no environmental cleanup needed for LNG spills on water or land.  This sounds like the perfect alternative to transporting crude oil, with all of its potential for environmental disasters.

But as we all know, nothing is perfect.  All of the processing and transportation adds to the energy cost and carbon footprint of the operation.  Plus, many sensitive coastal areas are being considered for the location of processing plants. Security experts fear ships and processing plants could be potential terrorist targets.  If they were attacked by a bomb, the resulting explosion would devastate the environment and the population for miles in surrounding areas.  To date, no consensus has been reached on the debate over whether the risks of transporting LNG outweigh the environmental benefits of increase consumption of natural gas.  The Center for LNG points to the industry’s standards for tankers and terminals as well as its safety  record to substantiate its argument in favor of expanded use of LNG.