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The Natural Gas Of Gas Essay

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Natural gas liquefaction goes back to the 19th century when Michael Faraday, a British chemist and physicist, experimented with liquefying different types of gases including natural gas. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is an odorless, colorless, non-toxic, non-corrosive and non-flammable form of methane. “The first liquefied natural gas plant was built in West Virginia in 1912” (Dominion). The LNG was first produced in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1939. In the 1950s and 1960s, the ocean-going trade in international LNG began. In 1969, the first LNG terminal and commercial liquefaction facility in the world in the United States began operations in Kenai, Alaska. The Kenai Peninsula LNG plant, operated by ConocoPhillips, is one of the oldest and constantly operated LNG plants in the world. In order for natural gas to be exported overseas, it must first be turned into liquefied natural gas, attested and a safe process that requires the construction and operation of new facilities.
The US government has a deep history of regulating different aspects of natural gas, including LNG, in interstate commerce. In 1938, Congress passed the Natural Gas Act, which granted the Federal Power Commission (FPC) exclusive jurisdiction over the import and export of natural gas. The federal government had been reorganized since 1938. To this day, the function of protecting the “public interest” for natural gas imports and exports has been allocated between two federal entities which are the FERC and DOE.

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