Increased Supply

At today's prices for natural gas, U.S. consumers in aggregate pay an estimated $180 billion per year, or close to $500 million per day more for this essential resource than they did four years ago. NorthernStar will increase the supply of natural gas for homes and businesses, helping to hold down monthly utility bills and rising energy costs. There has also been significant progress in recent years in the cryogenic technology used to convert natural gas to LNG. These improvements have resulted in lower costs for the liquefaction plant and ships, hence reducing the cost and further enhancing the competitive price of liquefied natural gas for consumers.

Natural gas is the cleanest major source of energy used in the United States today, fueling millions of homes and businesses with everything from heating and cooling to cooking and hot water.

• Cleaner Air
  Natural gas is a clean, safe and reliable source of energy. Using more natural gas to replace dirtier and less environmentally acceptable fuels will help address a number of environmental concerns such as smog, acid rain and greenhouse gas emissions. Natural gas is cleaner-burning than other fossil fuels because it contains more hydrogen (which results in harmless water as its combustion product) and less carbon, which produces the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2).

• Reduced Global Warming
  Natural gas is a highly efficient source of energy. About 90% of the natural gas produced is delivered to customers as usable energy. Modern power stations can convert natural gas into electricity with efficiencies greater than 50% versus 35% for coal and heavy oil. When natural gas is used for home heating, close to 80% of its heat content is effectively used. In contrast, less than 28% of the energy converted to electricity reaches consumers, which is why natural gas is a better solution for homes and businesses than electrical heating power when its comes to heating, cooking or hot water. When using natural gas to generate heat or electrical power the combination of a cleaner-burning fuel and the need to use less of it results in considerably less air pollution, and leads to less global warming than the use of other fuel sources.

• Cleaner Process
  Liquefied natural gas processing makes natural gas even cleaner. Because the liquefaction process removes many of the impurities in natural gas, LNG that is re-gasified produces an even cleaner-burning gas which is better for the environment than unprocessed gas simply taken from the ground.