Natural Gas: The Next Energy Crisis?

The United States has long been addicted to foreign oil, but is now at risk of becoming dependent on foreign natural gas as well. This article discusses this growing dependence, the resulting security implications and how the United States can prevent the pending crisis in natural gas supply. Natural gas now supplies about 25% of the energy consumed by the United States, and demand is expected to rise 40-50% between 2000 and 2020. Until recently, North America was able to supply most of its own natural gas, but the available supply of natural gas is not keeping pace with this growing demand. The result of this supply problem is that gas increasingly must come from the foreign sources that make up two-thirds of the world's natural gas reserves: Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Higher demand for gas will provide substantial revenues for these countries and help sustain some very problematic governments. Russia is a particular concern, since it is actively attempting to build a European monopoly on natural gas supply and distribution. The author suggests that the United States government should work to increase domestic supplies of natural gas and expand the infrastructure to deliver it to customers. The United States would also benefit from a global competitive market for natural gas and the establishment of natural gas reserves to provide a margin of safety against supply disruption.