By David Callahan
Growing up in Pennsylvania’s northern tier, the son of parents who proudly worked for the local natural gas utility, energy was always a topic of conversation.
Today, as it was back in ’70s — a decade when energy scarcity made us realize the importance of energy to many facets of our daily lives — how we produce, transport and use energy is front of mind for American consumers, especially in light of COVID-19.
Thankfully, the dark days of energy shortages are gone, as the United States is blessed with abundant supplies of clean, affordable natural gas. As countries tackle complex challenges to address climate change while balancing economic growth, Pennsylvania-produced natural gas must be the cornerstone to serious solutions.
The commonwealth sits atop among the world’s largest and most prolific shale gas formations. Pennsylvanians overwhelmingly support safely producing, transporting and using natural gas to manufacture American-made products in the cleanest, most environmentally sustainable way.
That core commitment — responsibly developing the clean-burning energy that’s helping to combat COVID-19 and supporting our most critical economic and environmental goals — is shared across our member companies, from the natural gas producers to infrastructure operators and manufacturers making lifesaving critical goods.
Natural gas has been essential in fighting this pandemic, as it’s the building block in manufacturing plastic medical supplies — think masks, gowns, ventilators, vaccine syringes — and is critical to ensuring hospitals have around-the-clock, reliable heat and power.
And it’s the greater use of natural gas in power generation — both as on-site backup at hospitals and utility scale — that’s driving climate progress. As natural gas meets a larger share of our electricity needs, U.S. power-sector carbon dioxide emissions have declined 33% since their 2007 peak, federal government data recently concluded.
Similarly, in Pennsylvania, where natural gas makes up 43% of electricity generation, harmful air pollutants like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide are down 92% and 60% since 2005, according to state data.
This clean air success is largely market-driven, where natural gas and renewables work in partnership to produce more electricity and even fewer emissions. A pragmatic, commonsense and market approach will be key to unlocking ways to make natural gas use cleaner and bring about the most effective solutions to our biggest challenges.
In fact, a recent GE analysis emphasized the well-known fact that natural gas and renewables “deployed in tandem can provide decarbonization at the pace and scale needed to help achieve substantial climate goals.”
Individual energy companies continue to make significant strides to further enhance environmental performance by deploying advanced technologies, best practices and rigorous compliance programs. Our industry is proud of the shared successes that have positioned the Marcellus Shale as the nation’s lowest-cost and lowest-emissions shale gas basin.
Climate, energy, poverty and national security issues are global in nature, and that’s where there’s significant opportunity for domestic natural gas to play a leading role.
American natural gas exports can provide immediate and long-term global climate solutions. Our allies around the world, especially in developing regions, need affordable and cleaner energy. We have the opportunity to take a leadership role in meeting that demand, rather than ceding ground and political leverage to competing energy-producing nations that don’t produce energy in a way that’s anywhere close to how safely we do it here.
As policy debates advance, some leaders will focus on actual facts and science while others will cling to unrealistic desires that speak to a narrow base of political supporters who are OK with the devastating and unnecessary loss of good-paying American energy jobs, including for union workers.
Extreme government-imposed energy bans, winners-and-losers mandates, and energy tax increases have made a lot of headlines recently nationally and in our state. Gov. Tom Wolf again proposed an additional energy tax that would make Pennsylvania the nation’s highest such tax while eroding jobs and harming our fragile pandemic recovery.
We need an honest conversation focused on pragmatic policymaking. Energy is fundamental to human progress, and thanks to clean, abundant natural gas, we have a generational opportunity to come together for real solutions.
David Callahan is president of the Robinson-based Marcellus Shale Coalition.
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