HOUSTON — The U.S. could export anywhere between 0.2 trillion cubic feet and 10.3 trillion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas annually by 2040, according to the latest government projection.

Where along that spectrum the actual figure lands will be determined by global energy prices and the availability of U.S. natural gas, the agency said in a Tuesday rehashing of projections made in the Annual Energy Outlook for 2015.

The wide range of outcomes hasn’t stopped U.S. companies from proposing dozens of new export facilities. While market watchers have said that it’s unlikely all of these facilities will come online, several are on track to begin shipping within the decade. Freeport LNG, near Houston, secured the final piece of financing for its $12.5 billion liquefied natural gas export terminal on Tuesday, placing the company on track to begin sending gas abroad within three years.

But while the EIA has said that the U.S. will become a net exporter of natural gas by 2017, the agency said that the scope of the total industry is uncertain.

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Commentary: U.S. energy industry should shift focus when it comes to emissions

The global energy industry’s future relies on acknowledging human-induced global climate change, embracing efforts to mitigate carbon emissions and delivering more natural gas to displace coal and oil for generating electricity.

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Mark Davis: Don't shut down a magnificent industry because of a few quakes

It seems the debate over hydraulic fracturing and earthquakes has shifted like the crust beneath our feet.

We might have moved from wondering whether fracking can cause quakes to a new phase of figuring out what to do now that it seems a link might exist.

SMU researchers are examining the varied parts of North Texas where mild shudders have raised eyebrows and tensions. They find that at least in Azle, Reno and other areas northwest of Fort Worth, the various injections and extractions necessary to the securing of oil and natural gas might have caused the more than two dozen tremors felt in the area from November 2013 to January 2014.

That’s a big spike in seismic activity in an area where no quakes had been reported since the Civil War, but that doesn’t mean the linkage is proven.

One of the grandest flaws of global warming cultism is the logical flaw known in Latin as post hoc ergo propter hoc: B following A does not mean that B was caused by A. Just as global temperature upticks may or may not be attributable to human productivity, the humming earth along the Tarrant-Parker County line might or might not be the result of oil and gas extraction.

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