“This is our moment, a pivotal moment, a decisive moment for natural gas,” said Dave McCurdy.
On April 28, Dave McCurdy, president and CEO of the American Gas Association (AGA), was the guest speaker at the monthly Natural Gas Roundtable meeting. He stressed that 2011 will prove to be a year of seismic change for the country’s energy priorities.
What will this mean for the natural gas industry?
“Geopolitical unrest in Africa and the Middle East will maintain upward pressure on the price of crude oil,” said McCurdy. “And I am not talking years, I am talking decades.”
While that will put pressure on our economy, he said, “there is a bright spot. That is natural gas. Natural gas has the potential to help move this country toward an environmentally sustainable, economically viable and domestic energy policy.”
McCurdy emphasized one shift within the industry that is not tangible, but it represents the new role natural gas is playing in our lives. Natural gas has been referred to as a bridge fuel that will sustain us until we can rely solely on renewable alternatives, but with more than 100 years of supply natural gas is more than a bridge, it is a foundation fuel.
It is our most powerful domestic asset, right beneath our feet, which will help lessen our dependence on foreign energy supplies, create American jobs, continue to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and provide consumers an affordable and reliable energy.
There will be challenges. “The challenges we will face are not physical or technical,” McCurdy said. “They are political.”
“There is a lot of energy being moved from wellhead to burner tip throughout the natural gas industry and that is why our industry is embedded in a safety culture,” said McCurdy. “We need responsible resource development, plain and simple.”
