Fifteen years ago, says Michael Baly III, a coal-based electric utility group ran an advertisement that included a picture of a baby. The ad said that by the time the child was out of eighth grade, America would have run out of natural gas.
About now, Baly told the 32nd annual meeting of the Utah Petroleum Association, "that same kid should be getting his driver's license" in a nation where 166 million people use natural gas every day, where more than 265,000 wells are producing gas and where gas meets nearly a quarter of the nation's energy needs."And where a 1.2 million-mile natural gas delivery system is the envy of the world," he added.
Baly is president of the American Gas Association, the natural gas industry group based in Washington, D.C. He was keynote speaker Thursday at the Utah Petroleum Association's 32nd annual meeting at the Marriott Hotel.
Baly told the gathering of some 300 business executives that, like many gas-producing states, Utah has to strike a balance between environmental protection and responsible gas and oil drilling.
"But what a paradox it would be if well-intentioned concern for the environment ended up blocking the fuel that's best for the environment," Baly said. And speaking of paradoxes, he cited the "promising" new gas discovery in San Juan County's Paradox Basin and a 15 percent increase last year in Utah's gas production.
Baly criticized as a "D- effort" an article that appeared in the Aug. 2 Wall Street Journal in which natural gas was said to have a "poor image" and "no zing."
Not so, said Baly, citing a recent poll of more than 1,000 American "opinion leaders" who cited gas as the best form of energy for home heating, the most environmentally friendly fuel, the fuel that should be supported as a matter of national policy and who ranked it "fairly clean or very clean" (96 percent).
Apparently, said Baly, Americans think gas has plenty of "zing," since its market share has risen from 43 percent to 59 percent nationally in the past five years. In Utah, 95 percent of the homes are heated with gas, he said.
"Last year alone, more than 218,000 American homeowners switched to natural gas heat from other energy forms - an eight-year high and a 21 percent increase over the previous year," he said.
In the commercial market, more than 13,000 conversions to gas were made in the U.S. last year, he said, and gas dominates industrially in the cogenera-tion market where some 67 percent of planned cogen-eration projects will be fueled by gas.
The Journal article cited a decline in natural gas market share since 1970, proof that the "golden age of gas" expected in the 1990s is not occurring.
Baly countered that wellhead price controls in place since 1954 created shortages in the '70s and moratoriums on new gas hookups and bans on natural gas for new large power plants and industrial boilers because of the Fuel Use Act further hampered gas development.
It would be more fair, he said, to chart gas demand today with 1986 when wellhead price controls were phased out and the Fuel Act eliminated. Today, some 8,000 miles of new gas pipeline is planned or under construction, reflecting the confidence of investors in gas.
Citing the estimated 60-70 year supply of gas that could be developed in the U.S., Baly said gas is a more logical energy source than imported oil.
"Earlier events this year in the Middle East and last month's activities in Moscow reminded us once again of the importance of energy security," he said.
"We believe natural gas could displace 1.7 million barrels per day of imported oil within 10 years if the national got really serious about energy security."