By Dan,
posted on Wednesday, August 25, 2010.
First-of-a-kind shale gas meetings took place in Washington this
week as U.S. leaders offered insight to more than 20 countries on
the development of shale gas - a recent phenomenon that has led
America to the title of the world's largest natural gas producer.
In addition to the guests from 20 countries, participants in the
Global Shale Gas Initiative Conference included representatives
from 10 U.S. agencies, state and local regulators and independent
producers known for their work in shale.
Shale gas "has been a terrific boon for ourselves and for global
energy security," David Goldwyn, the U.S. coordinator for
international energy affairs, said in his briefing to the Department of State. "Other
countries want to replicate this process. And we wish them the best
in doing this, but there are a lot of things that governments need
to know in order to develop shale gas safely and effectively."
The opportunity for other countries to develop shale gas using
U.S. technology would help diversify global energy supplies and
provide a base-load energy choice to countries with limited access
to electricity or that only have one energy supply option. As Mr.
Goldwyn explained, "Because we have discovered and we have the
technology to develop efficiently large quantities of gas from
shale… Gas has become cheaper. Gas is now competitive with coal on
a BTU basis, which means that countries that might use coal, can
now … on a competitive basis choose gas for their next level of
power generation."
With the benefit of this innovation, the United States and
Canada have been able to discover and develop abundant supplies of
natural gas. Additionally, because natural gas is vastly
underutilized in power generation and transportation, America has a
huge opportunity to expand the use of natural gas to advance clean
energy goals and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and
other pollutants.
A recent report by the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology finds that decommissioning older, less efficient
coal plants, and using "existing Natural Gas Combined Cycle
capacity" here in the U.S., ``could result in reductions in power
plant CO2 emissions in the order of 10%.'' Natural gas is twice as
clean as coal when it comes to carbon, and has 80 percent less NOx
emissions and virtually no sulfur dioxide, mercury or particulate
matter. Just imagine the global emission-reduction possibilities if
countries around the world are able to follow America's lead in
shale gas production.
Increased use of natural gas is good news for everyone and would
play a pivotal role in helping the global community reach its
carbon and air pollution goals. It's exciting to see the U.S. take
the lead on such an important issue that impacts the entire
world.