Monthly Archives: September 2009

The natural gas rodeo’s right around the corner

Posted on September 11, 2009 by Dan Gibson | Comments Off

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Have you ever been to the rodeo? I don’t mean the one I watch on ESPN with the bull riders. I mean the natural gas rodeo. I’m talking about the natural gas rodeo being held in Fairview, Illinois on September 25-26.

The rodeo began in 1990 with 12 events held at the ballpark next to Denver’s Arapahoe Generating Station. After the first year, the rodeo was narrowed down to the relay and four other events. Those other four events are:

Dig Box
By far, the most popular event. Gas journeymen dig down four feet to find a buried box, then refill the hole – all done in a flurry of flying dust and dirt and shovels.
Gate Valve
Participants open and then close a gas valve as fast as possible.
Pipe Cut
Competitors have to pick up a pair of pipe cutters and cut a piece of 6″ gas pipe. The record time for that event is a speedy 15.0 seconds (held by Public Service of Colorado’s “Rocky Mountain Bad Gas” Randy Utecht, A. J. Morris, Rich Muench, and Joe Copland).
Meter Set
Contestants build a gas meter set-up from scratch.

The event went national in 1995 and involved eight teams from around the country. In 1999 the event moved to its current home in Fairview. Here’s the video from last year’s opening ceremonies.

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All Roads to Copenhagen are Paved with Energy Efficiency

Posted on September 9, 2009 by Dan Gibson | Comments Off

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Looks like I’ll be at the Alliance to Save Energy’s “All Roads to Copenhagen are Paved with Energy Efficiency” event next week. It’s an important event leading up to the Copenhagen Climate Conference. Dave’s going to be one of the speakers there on a panel with Tom King, the President of National Grid, and Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy. Should be a great panel.

From the web site:

As the 2009 United Nations Copenhagen Climate Conference approaches, there has never been a better time to discuss the major role energy efficiency must play in determining a global climate protocol. Discover how the U.S. and the international community are currently strengthening the economy, enhancing energy security, and helping slow climate change through energy efficiency. Representatives from industry, government, and the consumer interest community will address the need to utilize energy efficiency as the quickest, cleanest, and cheapest means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

On September 17, 2009, the Alliance’s summit “All Roads to Copenhagen are Paved with Energy Efficiency,” will assemble global leaders in Washington, DC for a discussion on the role energy efficiency must play in global climate protocol.

If you’re at the event, make sure you say “Hello.”

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AGA’s annual employee safety report helps utilities track their performance

Posted on September 8, 2009 by Dan Gibson | Comments Off

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Safety is always the number one priority among our members. There’s a great article by Andrew Lu on the Natural Gas Utility and Transmission Industry Occupational Injury and Illness Statistics (I know it’s a mouthful) report in the most recent issue of American Gas Magazine. That report has been produced by the AGA’s Safety & Occupational Health Committee since the 1980′s and features employee safety data for natural gas operators. Data are reported in several areas and sorted by company type (for instance, transmission, local distribution and combination utility) and company size as determined by the number of employees.

This issue of the magazine also contains Dave’s thoughts on the value of natural gas and The Gas Technology Institute and Operations Technology Development report on the technology advances coming our way within the next decade. Check out the digital version of American Gas Magazine.

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An energy plan we can start now must include natural gas

Posted on September 3, 2009 by Chris Hogan | 2 Comments

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In the August 25 edition of the Washington Post, David Crane’s editorial “An Energy Plan We Can Start Now” presented a broad plan to address the desire for “reliable, affordable and increasingly sustainable power,” but somehow managed to ignore the cleanest burning of the fossil fuels, which also happens to be domestically abundant and therefore a major contributor to energy security—natural gas.

Any sensible energy plan must include natural gas, which currently meets one-fourth of America’s energy needs and is the fastest growing of the fossil fuels.

Mr. Crane also stated that a large-scale deployment of clean coal must be a national priority. While clean coal is an important component of any domestic energy strategy, achieving it will be very expensive and its outcome uncertain. By contrast, natural gas is already the cleanest fossil fuel—it contains just one carbon atom—and when combined with new, highly efficient natural gas technologies and used directly in America’s homes and businesses it is the easiest and fastest way to achieve a low- or zero-carbon option.

For any “here and now” energy plan designed to ensure a low-carbon and secure future, clean, domestically abundant and highly efficient natural gas must be front and center.