Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) wants to shut down the only LNG shipping terminal in the U.S. In a letter to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, Wyden has asked the Department of Energy to revoke the the Department of Energy's recent authorization for the export of 98.1 billion cubic feet of Alaskan gas to Japan and other Pacific nations. The department approved a request earlier this summer from ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil to export up the LNG to long-standing customers through March 2011. The LNG would be shipped from the export terminal in Kenai, Alaska. In his letter to Bodman, Wyden says the gas would meet the needs of 1.4 million American families. In his letter, he doesn't mention the fact he is trying to order the federal government to make a company cut a long-standing contract with a Japanese utility. "The administration is trying to have it both ways--arguing that we need to drill everywhere because we don't have adequate energy supplies, while finding that we have so much energy that big oil companies can export it overseas and keep prices here at home higher than they would otherwise be," Wyden wrote. In his letter, Wyden charges that the DOE failed to meet the interest test required by the Natural Gas Act. He says that not only did the DOE fail to consider options for delivering Alaskan gas to the Lower 48, it rejected requests by the an Alaskan utility that the agency "condition the export of Alaskan gas on assurances that Alaska's own need for natural gas was met." It is not sure how the senator wants the LNG to get to the Lower 48, since the nearest receiving terminal would be Costa Azul in Baja California. The nearest U.S. receiving terminals after that are along the U.S. Gulf Coast. He's also pretty unclear where this much gas would be stored and who would use it. Under federal law, any company that wants to export LNG must first obtain permission from the DOE to make sure the export would not harm U.S. energy supplies. In granting the request, the DOE said allowing the LNG exports to continue "will not be inconsistent with the public interest." Wyden is calling for a secretary-level review of the DOE's export permission. Neither Marathon or ConocoPhillips, or for that matter Bodman or the DOE have responded to Wyden's letter. Stay tuned. More to come. This is just the beginning of how political the energy crisis has become and will become even more. Don't expect the DOE to rescind an order that would drive the Japanese to Russia or other countries for their LNG cargoes. And don't expect a very warm response from the Japanese government when they get word of this either. –John A. Sullivan, News Editor, Oil and Gas Investor, www.OilandGasInvestor.com, jsullivan@hartenergy.com