It was a small side note on the Business Page. "Royal Dutch Shell and Mitsubishi paid $17 billion to the Iraqi government for rights to natural gas deposits derived from a new oil field. The natural gas would otherwise be flared to the atmosphere as part of the drilling process." In the same newspaper, Republicans question Obama's decision to remove American troops from Iraq by the end of this year. "Let's stay until the job is finished."
Guess what, GOP? The job is finished now that Dutch and Japanese companies can safely swoop in and haul out that natural gas. After $2 trillion wasted, 4,000 lives lost and many more than that screwed up, the American taxpayer has done his job. There's a certain irony that the Dutch and Japanese are getting their natural gas from Iraq without any domestic pollution while we are getting ours by pressurizing chemicals into our groundwater. Maybe if we spent that $2 trillion on research, we could solve our energy problems without risking flames from our kitchen faucets.
Realistically, that Iraqi natural gas has to be liquefied and transported making it expensive. "Fracked" natural gas is right beneath Pennsylvania and exactly where it can be used so it is much cheaper. Better yet, we can keep it right here now that the Dutch and Japanese won't bid up its price since they have that good stuff from Iraq. What if Bush - Cheney had justified the Iraqi Incursion as "cheap energy" rather than "weapons of mass destruction"?
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