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Natural gas is ahead of the curve
Read my latest response on the National Journal’s Energy and Environment Experts blog to the question, “Should Carbon Be Priced Sector By Sector?”
The American Gas Association (AGA) commends Senators Kerry, Graham, Lieberman, Cantwell, Collins, Bingaman and Murkowski for helping to keep a spotlight on our nation’s energy issues and looking for smart, creative and logical alternatives to address America’s need for a sound energy policy. 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 urges members of Congress to take a look at the successful track record of America’s natural gas customers. During the past 40 years, while the number of natural gas customers has doubled, actual natural gas use and greenhouse gas emissions have remained essentially flat. This decline in residential gas usage per household is due to better insulated homes, more efficient appliances and conservation/efficiency programs supported by natural gas utilities.
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 successful approaches and encourage other innovative ways to promote conservation.
We believe that natural gas could, and should, be used as a tool to improve environmental quality and energy efficiency. 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. As it looks to the future, Congress should also identify what has worked in the past and encourage more of it.
Spectra Energy receives the 2009 Natural Gas Video Award
Here’s the release we just put out today on Spectra. Congrats on a job well done.
Washington, DC March 16, 2010 — Spectra Energy has received the 2009 Natural Gas Video Award from the American Gas Association (AGA) for its video “Facts about Natural Gas. The Natural Choice.” This is the inaugural presentation of the Natural Gas Video Award recognizing excellence in video communications by an energy utility.
“Spectra Energy’s video is an excellent example of the type of work that energy utilities are doing through video to communicate with the world,” said David N. Parker, president and CEO of the American Gas Association. “The video does a tremendous job telling the natural gas story of being efficient, abundant, domestically available and the cleanest burning fossil fuel.”
An AGA volunteer member committee reviewed the entrants before selecting from the pool of entrants Spectra Energy, the Council for Responsible Energy, Nicor, and NW Natural as finalists. The finalists were posted to the AGA blog, truebluenaturalgas.org, where visitors of the site were able to vote on the winner. During a three-week period, Spectra Energy received more than 1,500 votes for its video to win the award in a closely contested race.
“Obviously we were very excited to hear that we won the Award,” said Toni Beck, group vice president, internal and external affairs at Spectra Energy. “We wanted to raise the visibility of natural gas and promote its use and benefits. We thought video would be unique way of communicating a very compelling story about the benefits of natural gas.”
The Natural Gas Video Award will be given on an annual basis and submissions for 2010 are already being accepted.
About the American Gas Association
The American Gas Association, founded in 1918, represents 195 local energy companies that deliver clean natural gas throughout the United States. There are more than 70 million residential, commercial and industrial natural gas customers in the U.S., of which 91 percent — more than 64 million customers — receive their gas from AGA members. Today, natural gas meets almost one-fourth of the United States’ energy needs.
Contact
Dan Gibson
Director, Internet Communications
Email: dgibson@aga.org
Natural Gas Market Indicators
Domestic production strength has asserted itself once again during the first quarter of 2010 just as heating-sensitive demand load is declining and underground storage withdrawals are moderating. U.S. drilling operations now show more rig activity than one year ago with two-thirds directed toward natural gas.
Demand-side events including strong heating load requirements at different times throughout the 2009-2010 winter heating season and a slight increase in industrial natural gas consumption for year-to-date 2010 compared to 2009 have not been able to trump general supply strength and as a result natural gas acquisition prices have been modest and even declining at winter’s end.
Visit this link to download the full Natural Gas Market Indicator. Topics covered include: Reported Prices, Weather, Working Gas in Underground Storage, Natural Gas Production, Rig Counts, Pipeline Imports and Exports, and LNG Markets.
True Blue Natural Gas Blog from the American Gas Association (AGA)- Natural gas is ahead of the curve
- Spectra Energy receives the 2009 Natural Gas Video Award
- Natural Gas Market Indicators
- Sen. Murkowski, Energy Leaders Point to Natural Gas as Large Piece of the Climate Change Puzzle
- Diversification of natural gas supply is an essential consumer protection
- From Austin to Boston in a natural gas vehicle
- Natural gas, how about zero carbon emissions
- The real natural gas message in a climate crunch
- Let’s work together to protect our seniors
- Natural Gas Market Indicators
