The next roundtable will feature Dr. Ernest J. Moniz, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Moniz is part of the group at MIT that is working on The Future of Natural Gas, a study that analyzes the role of natural gas in a carbon constrained environment. This study is the third in a series and while not yet final the preliminary report has been in the news quite a bit lately. The first two parts of the series were The Future of Nuclear released in 2003 and the Future of Coal, released in 2007.

The study takes the position that natural gas will play a leading role in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions over the next several decades, largely by replacing older, inefficient coal plants with highly efficient combined-cycle gas generation. From the release on the report:

“The report includes a set of specific proposals for legislative and regulatory policies, as well as recommendations for actions that the energy industry can pursue on its own, to maximize the fuel’s impact on mitigating greenhouse gas. The study also examined ways to control the environmental impacts that could result from a significant expansion in the production and use of natural gas — especially in electric power production.”

“Much has been said about natural gas as a bridge to a low-carbon future, with little underlying analysis to back up this contention. The analysis in this study provides the confirmation — natural gas truly is a bridge to a low-carbon future,” said MITEI Director Ernest J. Moniz in introducing the report  . . . “For the next several decades, however, natural gas will play a crucial role in enabling very substantial reductions in carbon emissions.”

Some links you might find helpful:

A brief summary of the study at MyEcoProject

The release on the study from MIT (lots of info, six pages)

The interim report at MIT

This Natural Gas Roundtable is scheduled for Tuesday, July 27, 12:30 p.m. at the University Club in Northwest DC. If you’d like to attend just contact Ella at 202-824-7207 or at eproctor@aga.org by COB on Monday.

Related posts:

1. MIT Sees Natural Gas in Your Future…
2. The real natural gas message in a climate crunch
3. Energy Secretary Chu Identifies Natural Gas as Key to a Low-Carbon Future

Here’s his bio:
Working with the Bank’s global commodities research and trading units, Mr. Sieminski forecasts energy market trends and writes on a variety of topics involving energy economics, climate change, politics and commodity prices.  From 1998 to 2005 he served as the energy strategist for Deutsche Bank’s global oil & gas equity team.  He was the senior energy analyst for NatWest Securities in the US during 1988-1997, covering the major US international integrated oil companies. Adam Sieminski has been president of the US Association for Energy Economics and the National Association of Petroleum Investment Analysts.

If you want to attend just contact Ella at 202-824-7207 or at eproctor@aga.org by COB on Monday. See you there.

Related posts:

1. “The Future of Natural Gas,” Meet Dr. Ernest J. Moniz, MIT
2. Pictures from natural gas industry outlook for 2010
3. Natural gas industry outlook for 2010

Dave Parker, President of the American Gas Association,  Skip Horvath, President of the Natural Gas Supply Association, and Bill Cooper, President of the Center for LNG.

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3. Natural gas industry outlook for 2010

A number of issues in Washington and beyond face the natural gas industry in the year ahead. The Natural Gas Roundtable is pleased to announce that our first meeting for 2010 will be on Tuesday, March 23rd and will focus on the Natural Gas Industry Outlook for 2010, and feature a panel discussion on the issues and opportunities among the leadership of the various trade associations representing the respective industry segments. Please join us for this unique program and hear from Dave Parker, President of the American Gas Association, Bill Cooper, President of the Center for LNG, and Skip Horvath, President of the Natural Gas Supply Association.

The Roundtable is going to be at the University Club (1135 16th Street, NW). The reception starts at noon, panel begins at 12:30. Seating is limited so if you haven’t registered yet you’ll need to send an email to Ella. Leave us a note in the comments if you plan on attending.
A number of issues in Washington and beyond face the natural gas industry in the year ahead. The Natural Gas Roundtable is pleased to announce that our first meeting for 2010 will be on Tuesday, March 23rd and will focus on the Natural Gas Industry Outlook for 2010, and feature a panel discussion on the issues and opportunities among the leadership of the various trade associations representing the respective industry segments. Please join us for this unique program and hear from Dave Parker, President of the American Gas Association, Bill Cooper, President of the Center for LNG, and Skip Horvath, President of the Natural Gas Supply Association.

Related posts:

1. “The Future of Natural Gas,” Meet Dr. Ernest J. Moniz, MIT
2. Dave Parker Receives ASAE & The Center’s Highest Individual Honor for Exceptional Leadership
3. Pictures from natural gas industry outlook for 2010

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

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.

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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1. Natural Gas Roundtable: Adam Sieminski, Deutsche Bank

The Natural Gas Roundtable is pleased to announce that U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Gary Gensler, will be the guest speaker at the October 27^th luncheon.

Mr. Gensler was sworn in as the Chairman of the CFTC on May 26, 2009. Chairman Gensler previously served at the U.S. Department of the Treasury as Under Secretary of Domestic Finance (1999-2001) and as Assistant Secretary of Financial Markets (1997-1999).  He subsequently served as a Senior Advisor to the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, Senator Paul Sarbanes, on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reforming corporate responsibility, accounting and securities laws.

The roundtable is always a good time. If you want to attend, you’ll need to contact Ella Proctor by COB on Thursday, October 22. You can reach Ella at 202-824-7207 or eproctor@aga.org

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2. Natural gas industry outlook for 2010

Dr. Stelzer is a senior fellow and director of Hudson Institute’s economic policy studies group.  Prior to joining Hudson Institute in 1998, Stelzer was resident scholar and director of regulatory policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.  He also is the U.S. economic and political columnist for The Sunday Times (London) and The Courier Mail (Australia), and a contributing editor of The Weekly Standard.

The Natural Gas Roundtable always gets a great speaker. Last month, we had Red Cavaney, ConocoPhillips‘ senior vice president of Government and Public Affairs. Red also served as the CEO of API and on the senior White House staff for Presidents Reagan, Ford and Nixon. You can read a recap of that Roundtable over at Platts.

Red Cavaney, ConocoPhillips’ senior vice president of Government and Public Affairs, after his remarks at the Natural Gas Roundtable.

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1. Natural Gas Roundtable: Adam Sieminski, Deutsche Bank
2. The Communications and marketing group was a gas. Natural gas of course.

Tom started out with a very simple message. Natural gas is a clean, efficient and abundant energy source that provides an immediate, low carbon, domestic energy choice for America’s consumers. After that, he took some time to outline his priorities for the year.

• Advocating for the direct use of natural gas in America’s homes and businesses. It’s more efficient, more cost effective, better for the environment. Directly from the wellhead to the burner tip, natural gas loses only about 10 percent of its useable energy.
• Increase natural gas supply. Prices have moderated compared with this past summer, but that will change as economy picks up, and in current economic climate ANYTHING that can be done to lower prices and decrease volatility is good for customer, including:
  • Keeping the OCS open and expanding into new areas
  • Increasing access to non-federal park lands
  • Increasing LNG
  • Supporting the development of the Alaskan Pipeline to the lower 48
• Advocate that residential and commercial customers be covered but not capped under current climate change legislation . Here’s a great stat for you: The number of residential households using natural gas increased from 38 million in 1970 to about 65 million today – an increase of more than 70% – yet aggregate residential consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions remained essentially flat.
• Work with regulators to promote decoupling & other innovative rate designs. Today, 28 companies in 16 states have adopted some form of margin decoupling tariffs and 11 companies in 6 other states are in the process of approving it. Tom also made a point that no one-size-fits all. Utilities need to work with their regulators to determine best design for their individual circumstances.
• Work to increase LIHEAP funding. AGA led an effort to secure a record amount of funding for FY 2009, $5.1 billion, the full amount authorized in EPAct 2005. The Obama administration has requested only $3.2 billion for 2010. AGA will keep working on this issue to ensure low-income families get the help they need in these tough economic times. Here’s a link to a post on LIHEAP Action Day if you want to learn more.
• Continued outreach. Natural Gas has a great story to tell. An industry of solid fundamentals, good business practices, transparent operations, connected to our 65 million customers through 2 million miles of pipeline, and thanks to the inherent advantages of our clean-burning, efficient, domestic fuel, we have excellent growth opportunities-especially as we emphasize the advantages of the direct use of natural gas.

Quite a presentation. After Tom was done, there were some good questions from the media in attendance but Tom didn’t shy away, and gave what I thought were very good answers. If you missed it … well, you missed a good one. If you were able to attend, let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

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Every year, the incoming chairman to AGA gets to pick a theme for the year. Tom chose “Natural Gas: America’s Responsible Energy Choice.” What he means by that is the direct use of natural gas in America’s homes and businesses is its most efficient, most environmentally friendly and most cost effective use. By increasing the direct use of natural gas our country can be a leader in the fight against climate change, while helping to restore our economy’s vitality and saving consumers many millions of dollars.

The Natural Gas Roundtable has been around for more than 40 years and has served as the pre-eminent forum in Washington, D.C. for leaders in the natural gas field from government and industry.  Over the years the Roundtable has brought a host of leading speakers including cabinet secretaries, members of Congress, FERC Commissioners, corporate CEOs, and others together. Ella Proctor has been running the Natural Gas Roundtable for some time and does a great job making sure everything runs smoothly. Ella is one of my favorite people at AGA so be sure to say “Hello” when you’re picking up your name badge.

I think we’re pretty much at capacity for the event, but if you’d like to attend, leave me a comment below. I’ll talk to Ella to see if we can find a spot for you.

Related posts:

1. Natural Gas Roundtable: Adam Sieminski, Deutsche Bank
2. Natural gas industry outlook for 2010