Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com

Published - Sunday, August 03, 2008

Is the U.S. really the ‘Saudi Arabia of natural gas?’

By Richard Mial / La Crosse Tribune

Remember the character that the late Gilda Radner used to play on Saturday Night Live? She played a sweet old lady doing a television news guest spot who always got some basic fact wrong. When corrected, she would say “Never mind.”

U.S. Rep. Ron Kind had one of those “never mind” moments earlier this week.

On Monday, during an interview with the Tribune Editorial Board, Kind expressed skepticism about oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens’ suggestion that we use natural gas as a transportation fuel.

Never mind that Pickens has cornered the market on natural gas from the Gulf of Mexico, Kind worried that using all that natural gas for transportation might make the price shoot up even higher for gas used in home heating.

Now it turns out that the United States might have a lot more gas than previously thought.

Later in the week, after Kind returned to Washington, he heard a natural gas CEO address the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming with a decidedly upbeat and optimistic message.

A new study by an industry consulting firm says U.S. natural gas reserves exceed 2.2 quadrillion cubic feet, enough to last more than 100 years.

New forms of natural gas supplies — from shale and something called “tight sands” — have led to much more gas being available.

Aubrey K. McClendon, chairman and CEO of Chesapeake Energy Corp., based in Oklahoma City, told members of Congress, “I believe natural gas can and should be the driving force for how this Congress can take bold action to free our country from the death grip of high prices for imported oil, thereby improving our economy, enhancing national security and helping the environment. It’s a trifecta, triple play and hat trick all rolled into one.”

McClendon said the United States is 86 percent self-reliant on natural gas supply. Add in the gas we buy from Canada, and the nation is 98.5 percent self-reliant.

Compare that with oil. Forty-one percent of the oil we use comes from North America, and only 27 percent of our oil is from the United States. Imagine if we didn’t have to buy OPEC or Middle East oil?

Natural gas costs half as much as oil, and produces 90 percent less particulate pollution and 32 to 40 percent less CO2.

How do we get from here to there? Kind said General Motors already produces natural gas cars for foreign countries, and Honda sells a natural gas car.

What we need is the capacity for refueling, and a bill by Reps. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., and Dan Boren, D-OK., would provide incentives for automakers to make 10 percent of their vehicles run on compressed natural gas, and encourage gas station owners to install natural gas pumps at 20,000 stations throughout the country.

It almost sounds too good to be true — and it still could be. But let’s hope we don’t have to have another “never mind” moment.

Contact Opinion page editor Richard Mial at (608) 791-8232 or by e-mail at rmial@lacrossetribune.com.