Tim Wirth, a former Colorado senator and now president of the United Nations Foundation, told delegates at the Rocky Mountain Energy Epicenter last week that they have the power to shape the natural gas industry’s future.

The annual conference in Denver, sponsored by the Colorado Oil & Gas Association, drew thousands of gas industry professionals from across North America.

Wirth, a longtime advocate of natural gas, urged the industry to take off the gloves in its fight for market share against the coal industry.

“Unless you help to shape policy, your future will be shaped by others — mainly your competition,” he said. “The coal industry has been fiercely effective with Congress and regulatory authorities in defending its turf, and you have to be as well.”

To date, he said, “your industry has mostly run nice, positive, feel-good advertising, rather than conducting the persistent, aggressive campaign that will be needed for this transition.”

It’s not that “voters love coal — it’s that they love the jobs and the economic benefits that come with it — and natural gas can do better,” Wirth said.

The “old interests have a huge amount to lose,” but “the gas industry has a huge amount to gain,” said the former senator.

He said it was in the gas industry’s interest, “perhaps even your number one priority” to defend the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which in May finalized rules to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act (see NGI, May 17).

Another potential boost for natural gas came last Tuesday: EPA proposed reducing power plant emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides to meet state-by-state emissions reductions in 31 eastern states and the District of Columbia (see related story).

Defending EPA’s authority, said Wirth, “is a battle that gas must win.”

Wirth was one of many to urge the gas industry to action.

The industry has to counter the claims that hydraulic fracturing (fracing) endangers groundwater, said Questar Corp. CEO Keith Rattie. However, industry also can’t ignore the public’s concerns. Instead, he said, producers need to work to create “a believable” safety culture.

Pointing to the recent study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which estimated there is at least 16,000 Tcf of recoverable gas (see NGI, June 28), Rattie said the findings “should be great news. But some are not celebrating.”

The perceived dangers from fracing, combined with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and recent accidents in onshore shale plays have given drilling opponents an edge in calling for increased regulation of the industry.

Fred Julander, who helms Colorado-based gas driller Julander Energy, told delegates to work with environmentalists to solve issues that affect both sides. Natural gas, he said, “is a winner for the next century if we don’t mess it up.”

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