When Will Washington Quit Overlooking Natural Gas?

Domestic shale gas offers the U.S. “a chance to meaningfully reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil, cut the deficit and even reduce greenhouse emissions.” So writes Christopher Swann today in an article titled “Washington Is Neglecting Natural Gas.” The Thomson Reuters columnist focuses on the energy industry as well as hedge funds and has a strong bio; he previously worked at Bloomberg and the Financial Times. Swann labels the country’s enormous reserves of natural gas an unbelievable windfall.

“Just last month, the Department of Energy more than doubled estimates of recoverable shale reserves to 827 trillion cubic feet – the energy equivalent of roughly 140 billion barrels of oil. That’s slightly greater than the proven oil reserves of Iran, the world’s third largest repository of crude.”

Although Swann expresses amazement at the country’s new found reserves of natural gas, he labels natural gas “Uncle Sam’s most ignored blessing” because of Washington’s failure to put it to good use.

Every modern president since Richard Nixon has paid lip service to the quest for energy independence. Similarly, the bloated trade deficit and climate change have become political obsessions over the past decade. Yet precious little has been done to deploy America’s growing gas endowment to solve these problems.

Shifting the country’s “gasoline-guzzling heavy vehicle fleet” to domestic natural gas can help America “kick the habit” and shave as much as $100 billion off the country’s annual trade deficit by decreasing our reliance on imported oil by up to 3 million barrels of oil a day.

“It would also represent a giant step toward energy independence, reducing U.S. reliance on unstable foreign powers. Three million barrels a day is equivalent to more than half of imports from OPEC – Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Libya combined sell around 2 million barrels daily to America.”

So what does Christopher Swann suggest as a next step?

“First, new lawmakers should back Senate leader Harry Reid’s long-standing plans to promote natural gas-powered heavy duty vehicles. For taxpayers, subsidizing these vehicles initially would soon pay off as rising sales drove down prices. And with gas less than a third the price of oil for the same energy content, freight firms would quickly recoup the cost of pricier trucks through lower fuel bills.”

Read the entire story HERE.