The United States used 97.8 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) of energy in 2016. That’s 3.5 times more energy than Russia used the same year. Burning fuel to meet these energy demands affects the environment, but a shift in the last decade to lower-carbon natural gas has had a significant impact. Natural gas also emits  … Read more

Abundance Driving Affordability Throughout the last decade, domestic development of natural gas increased by 36 percent, enabling the U.S. to become the world’s leading producer. But how did the nation increase its production so drastically in only 10 years? It is a revolution fueled entirely by two factors – innovation and shale. Breakthroughs in hydraulic  … Read more

Why does natural gas emit less CO2? Natural gas is a clean burning energy source and the reason boils down to chemistry. When fossil fuels are burned, oxygen combines with carbon to form carbon dioxide (CO2), and with hydrogen to form water (H2O). These chemical reactions create the heat we use for energy. The amount  … Read more

As energy consumers, Americans benefit most when all of the nation’s energy sources play a role in supplying the grid. Subsidies, like those recently pushed for nuclear plans in New Jersey, Ohio and Connecticut create a distorted market with an uneven playing field and do a disservice to energy consumers. While voters in key states  … Read more

Changing natural gas to its liquid state makes storage and transportation of the resource much easier, as it shrinks in volume about 600 times. Liquified natural gas, commonly referred to as LNG results when natural gas has been cooled to a low temperature of -260 degrees F. Impurities are removed and the nontoxic liquid is  … Read more

In the 1920s, natural gas was discovered in the United States’ Great Plains. Upon that discovery, the rate of pipeline construction increased sharply to accommodate a growing need for natural gas as a heating fuel in large Midwestern cities. Since then, the United States has developed a sprawling natural gas pipeline network, composed of over  … Read more

One of the major benefits of natural gas is that it’s a type of clean energy, offering environmental benefits over other fossil fuels like coal that include reduced CO2 emissions. In fact, CO2 emissions from natural gas are half of those resulting from coal. The increased reliance on natural gas over the past few years  … Read more

Natural gas has existed for millions of years underneath the Earth’s core. Before civilization understood what natural gas was, it posed a mystery. The gas would seep from below the Earth’s surface and create fire when mixed with lightning strikes on the ground. In 500 BC, Chinese civilizations created crude pipelines made from bamboo shoots to transport the gas. The gas was used as a fuel source to create drinking water, by boiling sea water to separate the salt.

There are many uses of natural gas, all of which benefit our society. From the early 19th to 20th centuries, natural gas was primarily used to power lights in buildings and on streets. Today, modern technology has allowed us expand the uses of natural gas, some of which include: Electricity Generation – The primary use  … Read more

Yes, natural gas offers an affordable source of energy. According to an IHS study, 800 trillion cubic feet of natural gas can be developed for around $3 per cubic foot, and America consumed 27.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in 2016. When you do the math, it’s clear that natural gas is a cost  … Read more