{"id":21354,"date":"2016-07-03T17:35:11","date_gmt":"2016-07-03T22:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=21354"},"modified":"2016-07-03T17:35:11","modified_gmt":"2016-07-03T22:35:11","slug":"fracked-gas-lng-exports-were-centerpiece-in-promotion-of-panama-canal-expansion-documents-reveal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=21354","title":{"rendered":"Fracked Gas LNG Exports Were Centerpiece In Promotion of Panama Canal Expansion, Documents Reveal"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 id=\"page-title\" class=\"page__title title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/2016\/06\/29\/natural-gas-exports-panama-canal-expansion-documents\">Fracked Gas LNG Exports Were Centerpiece In Promotion of Panama Canal Expansion, Documents Reveal<\/a><\/h3>\n<article class=\"node-10749 node node-blog node-promoted view-mode-full clearfix\">\n<header>\n<p class=\"submitted desktop-only\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/sites\/beta.desmogblog.com\/files\/styles\/full_width_blog_image\/public\/blogimages\/Panama%20Canal%20LPG.jpg?itok=Lo7ZHCI8\" alt=\"\" width=\"826\" height=\"551\" \/><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"horizontal-social-bar horizontal-social-bar-top clearfix\">After nearly a decade of engineering work on the project, the Panama Canal&#8217;s expansion\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/bigstory.ap.org\/article\/5b2f50d9efc2406a99d714c298823ffc\/explainer-how-panama-canal-expansion-will-transform\" target=\"_blank\">opened for business<\/a>\u00a0on June\u00a026.<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p>At the center of that business, a DeSmog investigation has demonstrated, is a fast-track export lane for gas obtained via\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/fracking-the-future\/\" target=\"_blank\">hydraulic fracturing (\u201cfracking\u201d)\u00a0<\/a>in the United States. The expanded Canal in both depth and width equates to a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.eia.gov\/todayinenergy\/detail.cfm?id=26892\" target=\"_blank\">shortened voyage to Asia<\/a>\u00a0and also means the vast majority of liquefied natural gas (<span class=\"caps\">LNG<\/span>) tankers \u2014\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/sites\/beta.desmogblog.com\/files\/Energy%20experts%2C%20US%20see%20boon%20for%20LNG%20export%20projects%20in%20Panama%20Canal%20terminal%20.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">9-percent before versus 88-percent now<\/a>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0can now fit through\u00a0it.<\/p>\n<p>Emails and documents obtained under open records law show that\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">LNG<\/span>\u00a0exports have, for the past several years, served as a centerpiece for promotion of the Canal&#8217;s expansion by the\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">U.S.<\/span>\u00a0Gulf of Mexico-based Port of Lake\u00a0Charles.<\/p>\n<p>And the oil and gas industry, while awaiting the Canal expansion project&#8217;s completion, lobbied for and achieved passage of a federal bill that expanded the water depth of a key Gulf-based port set to feed the fracked gas export\u00a0boom.<\/p>\n<p>Control of the Panama Canal by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/How-Wall-Street-Created-Nation\/dp\/1568582668\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"caps\">U.S.<\/span>\u00a0big business and Wall Street<\/a>\u00a0has, for over a century, served as a focal point of\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">U.S.<\/span>\u00a0foreign policy in the\u00a0Americas.<\/p>\n<p>While no longer in de facto control of the isthmus as it was during the days of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Panama_Canal_Zone\" target=\"_blank\">Panama Canal Zone<\/a>, Jill Biden&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2016\/jun\/27\/panama-canal-expansion-reopens-trade\" target=\"_blank\">presence<\/a>\u00a0as part of an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/the-press-office\/2016\/06\/20\/president-obama-announces-presidential-delegation-attend-inauguration\" target=\"_blank\">official Presidential Delegation<\/a>\u00a0at the expanded Canal&#8217;s opening ceremony symbolized the importance of the waterway and de jure role of the\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">U.S.<\/span>\u00a0government in pushing for its expansion over the past several years. So too did the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.southcom.mil\/newsroom\/Pages\/SOUTHCOM-Commander-Attends-Panama-Canal-Expansion-Ceremony.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">attendance<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">U.S.<\/span>\u00a0military&#8217;s Southern Command (<span class=\"caps\">SOUTHCOM<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>And in turn, the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/webcache.googleusercontent.com\/search?q=cache:XNgbFpkM3n4J:www.tradewindsnews.com\/weekly\/765625\/canal-gears-up-for-historical-opening+&amp;cd=1&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=us\" target=\"_blank\">reported participation\u00a0<\/a>of\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">LNG<\/span>\u00a0exports giant Cheniere Energy\u00a0at the kick-off serves as a portrayal of the importance of the Canal&#8217;s expansion to the oil and gas industry. The Panama Canal Authority\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2016-06-08\/more-than-5-gas-tankers-a-week-seen-crossing-wider-panama-canal\" target=\"_blank\">estimates<\/a>\u00a0that 20 million tons of\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">LNG<\/span>\u00a0may pass through on an annual\u00a0basis.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fracked Gas LNG Exports Were Centerpiece In Promotion of Panama Canal Expansion, Documents Reveal After nearly a decade of engineering work on the project, the Panama Canal&#8217;s expansion\u00a0opened for business\u00a0on June\u00a026. At the center of that business, a DeSmog investigation has demonstrated, is a fast-track export lane for gas obtained via\u00a0hydraulic fracturing (\u201cfracking\u201d)\u00a0in the United [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5],"tags":[5317,331,412,1714,1190,14151,11481],"class_list":["post-21354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","category-geopolitics","tag-desmog-blog","tag-fracking","tag-hydraulic-fracturing","tag-liquified-natural-gas","tag-lng","tag-panama-canal","tag-steve-horn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21354"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21355,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21354\/revisions\/21355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}