Governor announces national natural gas summit

Knowles convenes September forum as Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission chairman

Kristen Nelson

PNA News Editor

Gov. Tony Knowles said Aug. 16 that he has invited the nation’s governors to a September summit on natural gas to be hosted by Ohio Republican Gov. Bob Taft in Columbus, Ohio. The summit is sponsored by the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, of which Knowles is chairman.

“The wholesale price of natural gas has doubled since April, and tripled since last summer, and all signs point to an extremely tight natural gas market this winter,” Knowles said in his invitation letter to governors.

Knowles noted projections that heating bills could rise by 50 percent this winter as the price of natural gas rises, and credited “lackluster North American production.”

“The ‘Governors’ Natural Gas Summit — Responding to a Looming Energy Crisis,’ will draw attention to the current supply, demand, and price for natural gas, and initiate a discussion to help guide a rational public policy response to the current high prices and looming supply shortfall,” Knowles said.

He said it is timely to address the natural gas shortage in a comprehensive way at the national level and that the September program is designed to help governors understand the North American gas marketplace and help them build individual action plans for their states. All governors have been invited he said, along with some top industry officials and experts on the natural gas supply and marketplace.

Knowles noted at an Anchorage press conference Aug. 16 that with higher natural gas and heating prices this winter, there will “be a lot of people who want to jump to issues like price controls or other mechanisms” which chill investment while the solution is to develop more resources to bring about a positive price correction.

There won’t be anymore nuclear power plants, Knowles said, and coal has its problems. Natural gas, he said, “is the preferred fuel for environmental reasons” and with this anticipation of demand, the question is how we can develop the supply.