‘Great Wall’ of natural gas for U.S.?

[dArKeR]

Thanks to the Blackout of 2003, the long, winding road of congressional politics might finally lead to a national energy bill. If it does, there’s a good chance that final stretch of road will pass through Alaska. It turns out the state is home to the most divisive energy project out there, but also the most bipartisan one.

 THE DIVISIVE one is well-known: drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR.
       The one with bipartisan, and even environmentalist, support is barely known outside Alaska or the Beltway: a $20 billion plan to build a pipeline that ships Alaska natural gas to the Lower 48.
       Alaska’s North Slope is thought to have the largest natural gas reserves in the United States. The area now produces and ships crude oil, but the pipeline used for that can’t handle natural gas, leaving the gas trapped underground.
       And while Alaska’s lawmakers have been relatively quite about ANWR, they’re gushing about the pipeline prospects in terms of construction jobs and future tax revenue.
       “The 3,500-mile span of pipe will consume over 5 million tons of steel, require the largest gas handling facility of its kind in the world, and will rival the Great Wall of China in length,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, noted recently.

http://msnbc.com/news/954491.asp?0cv=CB20

[Dissenting_Prole]

1. Do the numbers.

If the US consumes about 23 trillion cubic feet of natural gas a year, and ANWR contains 35 trillion feet, for how many years will ANWR meet the needs of the US?

http://www.postcarbon.org/pubs.php?doc=US.NG.When_markets_fail.v1-3.JD.2003-08-13.php

[Porcupine]

2. Will the pipeline use more energy than the gas shipped?

I'm just curious here. Building the pipeling will cause a huge energy expenditure for the production of steel, shipping of materials and supplies for work forces etc. Would we actually create a net energy gain by building the damn thing?

Conversely a similiar energy and dollar expenditure in steel for windmills might be more profitable in terms of BTU's per buck. That's how this thing should be attacked.