A Natural Gas Revolution? Examining the Impact
A Natural Gas Revolution? Examining the Impact
RFF First Wednesday Seminar
April 7, 2010
Over the past few years, the outlook for domestic natural gas markets has shifted dramatically. A few years ago, most forecasts showed the United States growing increasingly dependent on imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Now, it seems likely that North America will grow increasingly self-sufficient in natural gas, even if new climate policy initiatives substantially increase U.S. natural gas use. The shifting outlook owes to substantial increases in estimated U.S. shale gas resources. Estimates of conventional natural gas resources have remained steady while estimates of shale gas resources more than doubled from 2007 to 2009. Moreover, the cost of producing shale gas has also dropped considerably.
The recent gains in U.S. natural gas resources raises intriguing issues for energy markets and policy, among them:
How will greater supplies affect natural gas prices, consumption, imports, and world markets? What will the impact be on the costs of efforts to control carbon dioxide emissions? Will there be significant disruptions of local environments from shale gas extraction?
How will greater supplies affect natural gas prices, consumption, imports, and world markets? What will the impact be on the costs of efforts to control carbon dioxide emissions? Will there be significant disruptions of local environments from shale gas extraction?
Audio and Video
Event Audio (mp3)
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