Leslie’s Notebook

The Democratic National Convention opened today in Denver, and energy will be a part of the discussion for the speeches and the party platform. It remains to be seen just how much air time energy will get–and no doubt it will be mostly about renewables and that old myth that the U.S. can become independent of foreign oil–or any oil–if we would just try.

Meanwhile, one of the local trade groups–the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States (IPAMS)–today reminded Sen. Obama and the delegates that policies calling for more renewables such as wind and solar “must be accompanied by a plan for increased development of domestic natural gas.  “Solar and wind facilities simply cannot exist without increased supplies of natural gas,” said Marc Smith, IPAMS executive director. “As we welcome the Democratic delegates to Denver, we remind them that efforts to increase our reliance on wind and solar energy will require increased domestic natural gas supplies.”

According to the Department of Energy, by 2030, 25% of our energy will come from natural gas (an increase of 5% from 2007), and about 8% will come from renewable energy sources, IPAMS said.

“As the U.S. increases its reliance on solar and wind energy, more clean-burning natural gas will be needed to fill the gaps when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining. For example, with each kilowatt hour of wind power installed, there is a corresponding kilowatt hour of natural gas back-up capacity added.“Natural gas producers are proud to be the silent partners to renewable energy,” said Smith.  “As the delegates craft their party’s platform and vision for the future this week, we hope they’ll remember that policies creating a higher demand for natural gas while limiting the creation of new supplies are a recipe for disaster. “Legislation that causes more bureaucratic delays and further limits access to federal lands where vast amounts of our energy resources are located will limit domestic natural gas supplies and keep wind and solar from becoming a viable energy sources,” concluded Smith

Visit www.ipams.org/dnc for more information.

–Leslie Haines, Editor-in-chief, Oil and Gas Investor, lhaines@hartenergy.com