U.S. imports of LNG have been constrained by inadequate global capacity for liquefaction, as well as by environmental and safety concerns that have restricted the construction of new LNG import terminals in the United States. In 2002, such imports accounted for only 1 percent of US gas consumption.
Despite the major effort to expand imports, the Department of Energy forecasts LNG imports this year at only 3 percent of gas consumption. Canada, which has recently supplied one-sixth of our consumption, cannot expand its pipeline exports significantly in the near term, in part because of the role that Canadian natural gas plays in supporting increasing oil production from tar sands.