Things are looking good.
We are currently experiencing a much needed break on our wallets due to the drop in price of crude oil per barrel, and it appears as though it might have some staying power, contrary to what heads of oil companies say. This means good economic times for consumers when it comes to filling up their tank or putting heating oil, even propane, in their home, but things could be changing down the line as well.
While most would talk about the continually advancing solar and wind power industries, which continue to operate better and more efficiently every year, it’s a more local and “home-grown” option that could be of national interest before too long: natural gas. The United States and Canada currently account for 99% of the natural gas that is processed in the world, and continues to find newer and more improved ways of fracking and processing this gas. Now Natural Gas is used in heating, cooking, and generating electricity, and creates propane as a direct byproduct of it’s production. Being a gas, it also burns cleaner than oil and coal.
Now why is Natural Gas highly important for the future? Because moves are currently being made to make Natural Gas a more widely used fuel source for vehicles, your home, and the generation of electricity. More fueling stations for Natural Gas are popping up across the country, vehicles are being developed and produced that use the fuel source as an alternative to petroleum, and a growing “green” initiative is making the coal and oil industry reel with sanctions. Clearly, something has to give and the introduction of a cleaner, and more US abundant, product could help.
John Hoffmeister, former president of Shell believes that it is the future and could lower our dependency on oil as a whole:
“I believe that with the right focus and development of the natural gas fuels market, we could begin to reduce global demand for oil from the 100-million-barrels-a-day level around 2020 to lower demand levels by substituting natural gas fuels,” he said. “We could pull it back to 90, 80, even 70 million barrels a day over the next two to three decades, taking enormous pressure off chronic high oil prices.”
Only time will tell what the energy industry will look like, bu all signs point to Natural Gas being a key component of our future.