IMO, North America is one long hot summer or one colder than average winter away from a real gas crisis.  The LNG imports will not be ready in time to avert this.

The big issue to me is that natural gas must be, "not too hot, not too cold, but juuust right...."

If the natural gas price is too high, it destroys demand in the U.S. as people will try to "fuel switch" to electricity from cheaper coal even if that means more CO2 release (logic:  I don't have to pay the "full price" of global warming, but I sure have to pay the full price, and NOW, to heat my home), and as companies "outsource" to places in the world with cheaper natural gas, and damage employment in the process.

But, if the natural gas price goes too low, the pipelines and LNG projects cannot possibly be done at a profit.  This means that, as one other poster said, "one bad winter" could be catastrophic, because the lead time needed to have the gas pipeline and LNG plants up and providing gas is years.  By the time we realized we needed the gas, we could not possibly build the infrastrure fast enough (go to TOD UK and look at exactly this situation in Britain) to save the U.S. from a very serious (and in New England/upper midwest states, a possibly deadly) supply problem.  The LNG and Alaska gas pipeline are two perfect examples of projects that even thier backers admit must have a "sustainably high" price for natural gas to find investors/backing.

Right now, though, the price is bearish, as back to back to back to back mild winter/summer/winter/summer has led to an astounding amount of spare gas  (and propane likewise, the great under utilized fuel is easily stored and in the summer, cheap and in surplus).

The best thing we could do is try to build faciliteis to store even more gas and propane, so that when we have these mild spells, we have somewhere to save the fuel for a rainy day!

Roger Conner  known to you as ThatsItImout