Countering comments from labor unions supporting the coal industry, the heads of three natural gas associations in Washington Thursday advised Sen. James M. Jeffords, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, that natural gas is not claiming an undue share of the power generation market. Further, natural gas reserves are plentiful and the delivery system is adequate.

“We challenge the notion, implied in the letter (from labor leaders to Jeffords) that the U.S. power generation industry is becoming too dependent on natural gas,” the heads of the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA), the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA), and the American Gas Association (AGA) said. On the contrary the nation depends on coal to generate 51% of its power, while natural gas has only 15% of the market.

“It is true that natural gas is the leading fuel source of new generation units, but even after all these natural gas units are built, coal will still dominate the electric generation market.” The group noted that less than 10% of all the new natural gas-fired plants will operate as baseload facilities.

There is plenty of gas to go around for a long time to come, they said. The natural gas leaders pointed to a National Petroleum Council study that found “the resource base in the lower 48 states is 1,466 Tcf,” or enough to last 77 years at current consumption levels.

The delivery system currently is more than adequate to meet demand. Also, expansions of the natural gas pipelines are “taking place at an unprecedented level.” The natural gas pipeline industry expects to spend $4.5 billion per year between now and 2015, just on new pipeline expansions.

The letter was signed by INGAA’s Jerry Halvorsen, AGA’s David Parker and NGSA’s Skip Horvath.

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