A report developed for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released Monday contends that stepped up energy efficiency programs can replace the need for expanding natural gas drilling offshore and in what the environmental group considers pristine parts of the Rocky Mountains. NRDC is worried about various areas in the West that are viewed as attractive for gas exploration.

The report prepared by GDS Associates, Inc., a Georgia-based engineering consulting firm, said there is “achievable potential for natural gas savings” if aggressive steps are taken to capture what are described as “cost-effective and untapped energy savings.” The bottom line for the NRDC is that the report concludes the added energy savings would put off the need to drill in what it called “undeveloped, environmentally sensitive public lands in the American West or in protected areas off our coasts.”

NRDC’s Jim Presswood said as a nation, “we waste too much natural gas. We can do much better by implementing the energy efficiency technologies we have today, which would dramatically lower consumer costs and save our natural heritage from destructive drilling.”

By GDS’s estimates, consumers would save almost 2.8 Tcf of natural gas annually over the next 10 years by implementing various “off-the-shelf”energy efficiency technologies. The amount equals 12.7% of the 22 Tcf of natural gas consumed last year in the United States. Over a 50-year period, the saved gas could total more than 234 Tcf, which the report said is three times more than the 86 Tcf that the federal Interior Department estimates could be found off of the U.S. coasts.

The energy efficiency programs reviewed by GDS for this report include energy efficient homes for new and retrofit construction; commercial construction; high efficiency appliances, including solar water heating systems; residential lighting upgrades; heat pumps, and high efficiency furnaces.

GDS called the natural gas savings estimates outlined in its report “very conservative,” noting that it only deals with technologies that are currently commercially available. “GDS has not included potential natural gas savings from emerging natural gas energy efficiency technologies or potential savings due to technological change,” the report said.

Overall, the report noted that natural gas consumption in the United States has decreased steadily in the past three years after peaking in 2000.

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