A pro-natural gas foundation is urging the federal government to emphasize gas-fired electric generation as the nation’s energy infrastructure plans are updated.

In comments to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) electricity delivery and energy reliability office, the American Clean Skies Foundation (ACSF) urged DOE “not to overlook” what it considers the nation’s “critical electric generating resource” when pursuing a power transmission study that has broad implications for energy deployment.

The ACSF was founded in 2007 and promotes the expanded use of gas, renewables and energy efficiency.

In its submission, ACSF CEO Gregory Staple wrote that continuing low domestic gas prices have resulted in “dramatic changes” in the U.S. power system. Natural gas increasingly is being relied on for power generation, the nonprofit emphasized in the seven-page letter. Increased reliance on the nation’s network of gas-fired power plants can save consumers money by eliminating some of the need for “costly and controversial” construction of new long-haul transmission lines, Staple said.

ACSF said gas prices are now widely predicted by several energy analysts to remain low and stable in the short- to medium-term (see Daily GPI, Feb. 1). The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is now predicting gas prices, which have dropped dramatically over the past three and a half years, are not expected to rise above 2008 peak levels until after 2035.

In this environment, gas is predicted to play an increasingly important role in the nation’s power generation, said ACSF. “Part of the reason is that low natural gas prices have increased the dispatch of existing gas-fueled plants and spurred plans for new gas power plants,” Staple wrote.

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