New England Will Benefit from Robust, Low-Cost Natural Gas Supply if Congress Removes Pipeline Red Tape

Given our nation’s energy needs, it is clear that we will be using natural gas for many years to come, to heat our homes, fuel manufacturing, and importantly, to generate electricity. Even given climate concerns, most experts agree that natural gas – and other fossil fuels – along with carbon abatement technologies like carbon capture and storage (CCS) will be needed to meet our energy needs in 2050. In fact, in an ACCF webinar last May, former Obama Secretary of Energy Ernie Moniz argued that the US will need natural gas well into the future, and that zero-carbon 2050 scenarios include the use of gas along with negative carbon technologies like CCS. Likewise, Jennifer Granholm recently told a gathering of energy executives that “[e]ven the boldest projections for clean energy deployment suggest that in the middle of the century we are going to be using abated fossil fuels.” With the demand for natural gas in the U.S. continuing to be strong. some elected officials have raised concerns that exporting natural gas via ship as liquified natural gas (LNG) could cause domestic price increases. Sen. Angus King, for example, has long championed the idea that LNG exports could have negative impact on consumers. Numerous studies –…