Exporting natural gas good for economy

Lead story in today's WSJ is about a soon-to-be-released US Department of Energy study that shows free trade in natural gas is good for the economy.  As any student who has completed the first two weeks of MBA 505 would say: "Do you really need to do a big government study to show this?"  Well, apparently yes because some law requires that such studies be performed for energy exports to any country that does not have a free trade agreement with the US.  (And most do not, but that is a subject for another rant for another day.)  The study had to be done before an export permit can be issued.