Author Archives: Tom Moskitis

Tom Moskitis Hey! Let Us Not Ignore Natural Gas!

Posted on August 4, 2009 by Tom Moskitis | Comments Off


By now the new natural gas supply study recently released by the Potential Gas Committee of the Colorado School of Mines has been well reported. Technological advances have led to a dramatic increase in the nation’s natural gas resources to over 2,000 trillion cubic feet (Tcf).

Much of the increase comes from shale formations that lie underneath Texas, Arkansas and the entire Appalachian Mountain chain. And some claim that the Haynesville shale formation underneath Louisiana may be the fourth-largest natural gas field in the world!

What has been less reported, but what may be just as important in terms of long term supplies, is the very real potential for methane hydrates – natural gas trapped inside ice-like crystals.

At a hearing last Thursday in the House Energy & Minerals Subcommittee of the Natural Resources Committee, a U.S. Geological Survey research geologist stated that the USGS has conducted its first-ever resource estimate of technically recoverable (using today’s technology) natural gas from methane hydrates and has determined that amount to be 85 Tcf on the North Slope of Alaska alone.

And in a separate study, the U.S. Minerals Management Service reported last year that more than 6,700 Tcf of natural gas is trapped in hydrates in high concentrations in sand reservoirs in the Gulf of Mexico. Under normal economic conditions, we use as a nation about 25 Tcf of natural gas every year.

With so much attention being directed toward biofuels, renewable and alternative energy, let us not ignore natural gas. We have many generations worth of the clean burning fuel right here in America.

Thankfully, we have strong voices on Capitol Hill standing up for this premium, home grown energy resource. In the House, Oklahoma Representatives Dan Boren and John Sullivan are championing the use of natural gas as a transportation fuel, with strong public relations support from billionaire T. Boone Pickens.

Over in the Senate, Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, as reported in “E&E News,” has said that “I’m using the (recess) time to try respectfully to educate members of my caucus, and maybe some Republicans, about the importance of natural gas, and the importance of domestic energy security, so we don’t lose that in this debate. It’s not just about cleaning up the environment. It’s about securing America’s economic future. And both are important.”

Right on, Senator. We need to tell anyone who will listen that choosing natural gas means being comfortable and responsible.

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Tom Moskitis Huge Supplies of Offshore Natural Gas Within Reach

Posted on June 10, 2009 by Tom Moskitis | Comments Off


The Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee continued marking-up energy legislation this week and turned to oil and gas issues. What may turn out to be very good news for consumers was the committee’s action to provide more access to the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) for oil and natural gas leasing.

The committee approved an amendment offered by Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) that will provide significant new access in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico (EGOM). Under current law, oil and gas leasing is prohibited until 2022 in the EGOM that lies within 125 miles of the Florida Panhandle and within 235 miles of the state’s western coastline.

The Dorgan amendment will open the EGOM beyond 45 miles of the Florida coast for oil and gas development, including the “Destin Dome” natural gas discovery that lies approximately 25 miles south of Pensacola. Existing pipeline and other vital infrastructure lie right next door in the already open Central Gulf of Mexico, so natural gas produced from the new area could come online and be on its way to consumers fairly quickly.

According to the American Petroleum Institute, The Destin Dome could produce anywhere from 110 to 165 billion cubic feet of gas every year for the next 20 years.  U.S. Senators from both parties have long been saying that we need to solve the problem of our dependence on imported oil. Some of the answers, such as renewable and alternative forms of energy, involve very long lead times. The Dorgan Amendment, however, provides a here and now solution that can be realized fairly quickly.

Perennial Senate opponents to offshore energy production, such as Bill Nelson of Florida and Robert Menendez of New Jersey, have vowed to filibuster and the environmental groups are calling the amendment a “poison pill” that will bring down the entire energy bill. But I agree with Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska who believes that the addition of real domestic energy production to the bill actually enhances its chance of passage. Could this be because the overwhelming majority of the American public is in favor of offshore drilling for oil and natural gas?

For the sake of our economy and our standard of living, let us hope that the Dorgan amendment gets enacted into law. For a summary of the Dorgan amendment, click here. To see AGA’s letter, click here. To read our press release, click here.

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Tom Moskitis Department of the Interior’s first field hearing on energy development on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS)

Posted on April 8, 2009 by Tom Moskitis | Comments Off


The Department of the Interior’s first field hearing on energy development on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) was contentious to say the least. Several hundred people turned out for the event held yesterday at the Atlantic City, NJ, Convention Center.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar presided and listened to statements by New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine and several of the state’s congressmen, all opposed to oil and gas drilling, as well as from many anti-drilling activists who almost, but not quite, dominated the meeting.

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Secretary Salazar hosted the first of four regional public meetings to gather information and public comment regarding an energy strategy for the Outer Continental Shelf [Photo Credit: Tami A. Heilemann DOI]

To me, this was no surprise since New Jersey is ground zero for East Coast opposition to drilling on the OCS. The crowd may have been decidedly different if the hearing had been held in, say, Charleston, SC, or Savannah, GA, or maybe even in Norfolk, VA. To be fair, Interior has also scheduled OCS field hearings in New Orleans, San Francisco and Anchorage.

In two of these locations, those in favor of oil and gas production on the OCS should be in the majority. But that was not the case in Atlantic City!

Those in favor of more domestic oil and gas production got their views in to be sure. Congressman Rob Bishop (R-UT), who serves on the House Natural Resources Committee, and former Congressman John Peterson (R-PA), were very eloquent in their support of more OCS access. But anti-fossil fuel activists and environmental groups made the most noise.

I was struck by the fact that all the industry and business people that spoke out used part of their allotted three minutes to state that they were for all energy options, including renewable and alternative energy. This is in contrast to opponents of energy development on the OCS. They are clearly against oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear energy. They are only for renewables, especially wind and solar.

What they do not, or refuse, to realize is that natural gas is part of the answer to our energy and climate challenges and can make more renewable energy possible. Revenues from natural gas production on the OCS could fund wind energy production on the OCS instead of tax payer dollars. And both the gas and the electricity produced could come to shore via the same undersea infrastructure.

This is a win-win scenario for our country and it is what I talked about during my three minutes at the microphone.

Here’s a link to video from the event.

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Tom Moskitis Interior Secretary Stands on Middle Ground

Posted on March 31, 2009 by Tom Moskitis | Comments Off


Speaking here at AGA today at a meeting of the Natural Gas Council, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar took a decidedly middle of the road approach to energy production on federal lands.

img 5511corrected Interior Secretary Stands on Middle Ground

AGA president and CEO Dave Parker, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and AGA chairman and chairman, president and chief executive officer of Piedmont Natural Gas Tom Skains.

He indicated that the environmental community may be unhappy with him because he believes that our country will continue to depend upon and use fossil fuel energy for years to come, and that his department will lease more areas for oil and gas exploration and production, not less.

That said, he also indicated that energy companies may not be happy with him either as many areas will remain closed or tightly restricted. He expects continuing disagreement over public land use. Before moving forward to lease areas for energy development, he said, more information is needed, particularly on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) where available data is decades old.

The series of four OCS field hearings scheduled for next month, which the Secretary will personally attend, are designed to gather information from stakeholders and will help guide the Interior Department’s planning. More information is available here.

Secretary Salazar had good things to say about natural gas, acknowledging its efficiency, especially when used directly by the consumer, its cleanliness and abundant domestic supply. Salazar says that the Obama Administration knows that natural gas is part of the solution, but he wondered aloud about whether those in Congress or the general public know this and said that we need to do a better job of telling our story. Of this there is little disagreement.

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