Lamar McKay, chairman and president of BP Americas said at the Financial Times’ US Energy Business Conference that natural gas is the cleanest burning fossil fuel in the energy portfolio, delivering 60% less CO2 than coal per kilowatt hour of electricity.
He argues that natural gas has the potential to provide the largest carbon reductions at the lowest cost using technology that is available today.
“I believe there is a growing consensus that any bill in Congress that aims to control carbon simply must do more to discourage the highest polluting coal-fired plants and increase the use of natural gas,” Mr McKay said.
He added, “If we could ramp up natural gas use by one trillion cubic feet per year, we could retire 150 gigawatt hours of the oldest and dirtiest coal-fired plants.”
According to him, the US is witnessing a renaissance in natural gas development. Techniques such as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling are being combined to open up new deposits of tight gas. In spite of disruptions from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, US dry gas production increased by 3.9 bcfd last year.
BP has estimated that as much as 30% of the near-term Waxman-Markey carbon dioxide reductions target could be delivered through expanded gas use for power.
Mr McKay said that if necessary technology is applied within a stable fiscal and regulatory framework, natural gas can transform America’s energy outlook in the decades going forward.
