After decades without an energy plan, America’s newly discovered reserves of shale gas offer the U.S. an unprecedented opportunity to secure the country’s energy security. Yet, as The Kansas City Star reported earlier this week, the failure to integrate natural gas more effectively into the U.S. energy portfolio is leading some companies to consider exporting this abundant resource.
Critics say that move would most likely boost gas prices, hurting homeowners in the Midwest, which relies heavily on the fuel for heating. Higher prices also would be felt by the many
industries that rely heavily on gas, and by utilities that are increasingly using gas to generate electricity. Other critics say it would be a shame to squander the chance to decrease reliance on foreign energy.
Among those who recognize the vital role natural gas can play in assuring energy security for America is Boone Pickens, who launched the Pickens Plan in 2008.
“We are awash in natural gas, and the reserves, driven by the shale plays, continue to expand,” said T. Boone Pickens, the Texas energy developer who champions a plan that would use more natural gas for transportation. “We are going to go down as the dumbest generation ever if we don’t put those reserves to work domestically and use it as a clean, abundant, domestic alternative to OPEC oil.”
By some estimates, America’s natural gas fields are on a par energy-wise with Saudi Arabia’ oil reserves, which are considered the world’s largest. From a transportation standpoint, natural gas offers the opportunity to switch from imported diesel to a domestic fuel source.
T. Boone’s “Pickens Plan” calls for using compressed natural gas in truck fleets and eventually in cars as a bridge to other alternative fuels. Convert every 18-wheel truck to natural gas, Pickens says, and you could cut crude-oil imports by a third.
Read more HERE.