Washington-The Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA) says a new report out by Wood Mackenzie raises concerns about natural gas supplies, prompted by the Climate Security Act of 2007. “At a time when more natural gas is needed to meet growing demand, including the global warming challenge, any supply reduction could result in an alarming increase in the price of natural gas,” said Paul Cicio, IECA president. “U.S. natural gas production has been essentially flat since 2000, while demand is up 9.8 percent and prices rose 189 percent in that same time period, according to Energy Information Administration and NYMEX data.” The report found that as much as 32 percent of expected natural gas supply in year 2012 – rising to more than 45 percent in 2017 – could be put at risk if natural gas exploration companies are forced to bear the emission allowance costs. “The alternative is to increase our reliance on imports of LNG, which is currently unreliable in supply, will increase our dependency upon OPEC type countries and negatively impact our trade deficit,” said Cicio. “Increasing domestic production is essential.” IECA says manufacturing competitiveness for basic industry is directly linked to the relative price of natural gas in the U.S. versus other countries. It says the significant increase in the price of natural gas since 2000 has been a significant contributor to the loss of 3.3 million jobs, or 19.2 percent of all manufacturing jobs.
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