Panama Canal Expansion on Hold/DOE won't approve LNG exports

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those plans now could be jeopardized because of a dispute over cost overruns -- which means America's gas export dreams could be in jeopardy

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The dispute could carry important consequences because the canal expansion has special importance for the United States, which hopes to start exporting natural gas, and Asia, which is desperate to buy it.

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Clouds over the canal expansion aren't the only concerns about U.S. gas exports. There are also already worries about the slow pace of government approvals for new natural-gas export terminals, the multi-billion dollar projects that freeze gas to a liquid suitable for transport by ship. The Energy Department has received almost 30 applications to ship gas to countries with which the U.S. does not have a free-trade agreement; only five of those applications have been conditionally approved, and none will be operational until 2017 at the earliest. For projects further down the line, there is the very real worry that government approval won't come until the LNG market is already well supplied by rival countries.

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LNG boosters, including Murkowski, may get extra help from across the aisle, if musical chairs in the Senate propel pro-export Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu to the top of the energy panel.

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