Monthly Archives: November 2009

Dan Gibson Natural Gas Roundtable: Rep. Dan Boren and Rep. Tim Murphy

Everyone is still talking about the last natural gas roundtable that featured U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Gary Gensler. Well, as they say, the hits keep coming. The next roundtable on Thursday, November 19th will feature Rep. Dan Boren, a Democrat from the 2nd District of Oklahoma, and Rep. Tim Murphy, a Republican from Pennsylvania’s 18th District. The two members of the U.S. House of Representatives are the co-chairs of the newly formed Natural Gas Caucus.

Here’s some short snippets from each from their bios.

Dan Boren1 Natural Gas Roundtable: Rep. Dan Boren and Rep. Tim Murphy

Congressman Boren sits on the House Natural Resources Committee where he helps protect the interests of America’s oil and natural gas industry and its millions of consumers.

Prior to public office, Dan served as the President and CEO of the Seminole State College Educational Foundation. He has also served as a senior aide at the Oklahoma Corporation Commission and worked on the staff of former U.S. Congressman Wes Watkins. Dan is also involved in numerous organizations and is an avid outdoorsman and hunter.

Dan earned his B.S. in Economics and went on to obtain an M.B.A. at University of Oklahoma. He and his sister Carrie were born to former Oklahoma Governor and U.S. Senator David Boren and the late Janna L. Robbins. His grandfather, Lyle H. Boren, represented southeastern Oklahomans in the U.S. Congress from 1937-47. Carrying on his family’s tradition of excellent public service, Dan serves by the values instilled him at a young age – values of faith, hard work, and personal responsibility. Dan, his wife Andrea, and their daughter Janna reside in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

timmurphy Natural Gas Roundtable: Rep. Dan Boren and Rep. Tim Murphy

Congressman Murphy represents the 18th Congressional District of Pennsylvania. The district includes parts of Allegheny, Washington, and Westmoreland counties. He serves on the House Energy & Commerce Committee and is an influential voice for domestic energy production.

One of eleven brothers and sisters, he learned first-hand the many blessings of family, the importance of education, and the value of hard work and opportunity. His early jobs ranged from cleaning horse stalls, bailing hay, and making mail pouch tobacco. Tim paid his own way through college and graduate school, earning a Bachelor of Science degree from Wheeling Jesuit University, a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Cleveland State University, and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh. He worked at several Western Pennsylvania hospitals (Children’s Hospital, Mercy Hospital, Magee Women’s Hospital), consulted for many Western Pennsylvania schools, and established his own private practice.

Tim has served on the boards of the Western PA Historical Society, the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, and the National Aviary. He also loves music and plays guitar.

If you want to attend, and really why wouldn’t you, you have to contact Ella at 202-824-7207 or at eproctor@aga.org by COB on Monday, November 16. Hope to see you there.

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Chris Hogan Should We Start Swapping Coal For Gas?

nationaljournalblog2 Should We Start Swapping Coal For Gas? The National Journal’s Energy and Environment Experts blog asked the question, “Should We Start Swapping Coal For Natural Gas?” in reference to the Kerry-Boxer bill. You can read Dave Parker’s response below and follow this link to see what the other experts had to say.

AGA’s position with respect to natural gas versus coal for electricity generation is: we need natural gas and coal for that purpose, just as we need to aggressively develop all of our other energy resources—nuclear, wind, solar and hydro, along with technologies that will maximize the utilization and efficiencies of each fuel. After all, demand for electricity will continue to grow, so our optimum energy strategy—both from a domestic-security and infrastructure-capability standpoint—is a flexible, diverse and regionally appropriate blend of electricity generation, in which natural gas plays a role, but so does every other fuel source.

Certainly, in a carbon-constrained world, natural gas, which is by far the cleanest and most efficient of the fossil fuels, can make a significant contribution to electricity generation, especially since new natural gas resource estimates indicate we have about 100 years of domestic supply. Thus, replacing the least efficient coal-fired generators with new natural gas plants would be a clear, and cleaner, step forward.

That said, we cannot lose sight of the fact that the most beneficial use of this premier fuel is directly in the home and business, or in other end-use applications such as natural gas vehicles. Natural gas from the wellhead to the burner tip in homes and businesses loses only about 10 percent of its useable energy. Converting natural gas into electricity to power comparable electric end-use product in the home or business results in the loss of about 65 percent of its useable energy, and results in increased greenhouse gas emissions. That is why diverting from its direct-use applications the significant volume of natural gas needed to replace the generating capacity of 8-10 coal plants every year is a less than ideal scenario.

We all understand that natural gas is a key piece to solving the energy and climate change puzzle. But increased fuel diversity would allow more natural gas to be used directly in the residential and commercial market, where, for more than 40 years, natural gas customers have led the way in increasing energy efficiency, conservation and greenhouse gas reductions.

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Pam Lacey Fuel Cells Deployed in Japanese Homes

On a recent post, I mentioned that the Japanese are already installing fuel cells in homes, using natural gas that they reformulate into hydrogen.

Well, I have a little more specific information now that I have seen the Japanese Gas Association (JPA) Newsletter for October.  JPA reports that their member gas utilities launched a residential fuel cell program in May 2009 under the brand name ENE-FARM.  Gas utilities and other companies are purchasing fuel cells from manufacturers, and then selling the units to residential customers with subsidies to make this energy efficiency upgrade affordable.

As of July 22, 2009, Tokyo Gas bought 200 fuel cells, Osaka Gas took 500, Nippon Oil Corporation (ENEOS) took 500, Toho Gas took 100, and Saibu Gas bought 26 fuel cells.  They each reported “good sales for the first year.”   Leading Japanese housing manufacturers consider fuel cells as strategic products that can help distinguish their homes as environmentally sound and sophisticated.

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Chris Hogan Natural Gas Allocations Crucial

nationaljournalblog2 Natural Gas Allocations CrucialRecently the National Journal’s Energy and Environment Experts blog asked, “The Nitty-Gritty: What Will Hearings Offer?” in reference to the Kerry-Boxer bill. You can read Dave Parker’s response below and follow this link to see what others are saying.

The American Gas Association (AGA) commends Congress for keeping a spotlight on our nation’s energy issues by giving careful consideration to several different bills on the table right now, including Kerry-Boxer. By recognizing the role that clean, domestic and abundant natural gas can and will play in combating climate change, our legislators can help reach our nation’s energy goals sooner.

AGA also urges members of Congress to take a look at the successful track record of America’s natural gas utilities and their customers. During the past 40 years, while the number of natural gas customers has doubled, actual gas use and greenhouse gas emissions have remained essentially flat. This remarkable success in both reducing natural gas usage on a per-household basis and increasing appliance efficiency should be considered when crafting a national energy strategy. Instead of simply mandating arbitrary prescriptive requirements, a far more effective course of action would be to continue to support these proven and successful approaches.

We believe that natural gas could, and should, be used as a tool to improve environmental quality and energy efficiency. To that end, AGA believes that as lawmakers craft climate change and energy legislation, the following key points should be considered.

If a cap-and-trade approach is implemented, Congress should maintain or increase the four-year delay for natural gas utilities coming under that program, while increasing their allowance allocation from nine percent to 12 percent and extending their allocated allowance phase-out from 2030 to 2040. Congress should also significantly modify or delete the provision that stipulates one-third of the value of allowances allocated to natural gas utilities should go to energy efficiency programs, as this approach will not reduce emissions and will only raise costs. In addition, Congress should treat all renewable energy sources equally, whether they are used to generate electricity or supplement natural gas supplies.

An approach to reducing emissions that is focused on appliance efficiency standards, building codes, and utility-supported conservation/efficiency programs has a proven track record for residential and commercial natural gas customers. AGA asks that Congress strengthen this approach rather than impose the higher costs and greater uncertainties that would result from a cap-and-trade approach.

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