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Natural gas has been produced in the United States for over 100 years and in 38 states. It is used primarily to heat homes and buildings but also as a fuel to generate electricity, as a raw material for carbon-based chemicals, and as a fuel for vehicles including automobiles. Very large shale deposits containing oil and natural gas exist throughout the United States. In the last three years, the technology (both vertical and horizontal drilling techniques) has been developed so the oil and natural gas in these deposits can be extracted economically. The Marcellus Shale deposit located mostly in Pennsylvania is the largest shale deposit in the U.S. Experts estimate it holds as much as 500 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of recoverable natural gas. The U.S. uses about 22 TCF per year, so the Marcellus could provide all the gas Americans need for more than 20 years. Previous to the Marcellus development, the largest gas field in North America was in Oklahoma, only 1/5 the size. Marcellus will rank as the second largest field in the world and more than twice the size of the next largest field. In the past two years, drilling activity in Pennsylvania has reached major proportions. Many small and large oil and gas companies, including Exxon and Chevron, are actively involved. Natural gas is the clean burning alternative energy solution to America?s dependence on foreign oil. Carbon emissions from the combustion of natural gas are one-third the emissions from gasoline combustion. Natural gas is also safer; gasoline is more likely to cause an explosion than natural gas. The use of natural gas to fuel vehicles could be the means to rid the nation of dependence on imported oil. The Honda Civic GX, one of the first automobiles to burn natural gas, was introduced in 1997 and is now available for sale in all 50 states, but mostly in California, New York and Utah. There are more than 1,500 natural gas refueling stations throughout the United States, with most in California and New York. Widespread use of cars using natural gas would require a network of refueling stations in the rest of the country, and the building of this infrastructure has only just begun. There are more than 11 million natural gas vehicles in the world today, but only 150,000 in the United States. In Argentina and Brazil, which have refueling infrastructures, the conversion of gasoline-powered vehicles to burn natural gas is commonplace. Since the present cost of natural gas is a third the cost of gasoline on an energy equivalent basis, there are economies in using natural gas in vehicles. With the potential for significant increases in natural gas supplies in the United States, natural gas could be the best way to eliminate U.S. dependence on foreign oil. Pennsylvania can be the leader in this effort and would likely be supported by 37 other states that produce natural gas. The first step would be to create an environment where a natural gas vehicle could be introduced as a commercially attractive alternative to gasoline-powered vehicles. This would encourage the building of an infrastructure of sufficient refueling stations around the country. |
