Natural Gas Industry Outlines Political Push At GasMart 2010
Chicago, IL - The push is on from the natural gas industry, newly arrived in the heavyweight class in energy supply, to gain an equal influence in new climate and energy legislation currently being readied for Senate action. GasMart 2010 attendees in Chicago May 10-12 will hear from Herb Vogel, President of BP Energy North America Gas and Power, the largest gas marketer on the continent, on how the industry sees its role at the policy-making table.
While it's become increasingly clear that the transition to completely clean fuels such as wind, solar and nuclear power can't do the job alone or overnight, the role of natural gas as a bridge fuel got little more than lip service in the climate bill that narrowly passed the House of Representatives last December. In the meantime a variety of Interior Department actions have served to delay or restrict natural gas drilling opportunities, both on and offshore.
But there's another chapter to this story. Ongoing negotiations for a new bipartisan climate/energy bill in the Senate offer a window of opportunity for the gas industry. And this time industry leaders are determined to gain a better position that recognizes the value of the enormously abundant, cleaner-than-coal-or-oil, home-grown, secure, natural gas resource base.
ConocoPhillips has a handle on a substantial portion of that resource base and Will Hussey, the company's Vice President, Origination, and David Slater, a Managing Director of Canadian-based Nexen Marketing, will assess just when and how it will all be developed. Porter Bennett, Bentek Energy's guru of gas pipelines, will inform on how it's all getting to market. And, if you're interested in LNG back-up, Guy Braden, Senior Vice President with the North American operations of GDF Suez will be there to fill you in. Also talking politics on the GasMart 2010 program is Brad Boister, an executive with Anadarko Petroleum, one of the founding members of a new Washington DC-based lobbying organization, America's Natural Gas Alliance, that grew out of the ashes of the natural gas flameout in the House bill.
And while not everyone in the natural gas and oil (note the order has been reversed) constellation likes to talk about it, there is a natural gas transportation alternative. Rich Kolodziej, President of the Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition, NGVAmerica, will bring the GasMart audience up-to-date on his campaign for compressed natural gas (CNG) to take over the fleet vehicle market from diesel fuel.
Just in case that's not enough controversy for one conference, a panel on the impact of potential new futures and OTC market regulation will include executives from IntercontinentalExchange and CME Group, along with Tom Saal, a veteran market advisor for industrials, and Richard McMahon of the Edison Electric Institute.
Industrial customers also will express their views in a panel discussion, while sponsor, the Process Gas Consumers, will host a luncheon meeting for end users in conjunction with GasMart.
Attendees who want to weigh in can do so in the Market Network Center, adjacent to the meeting room, where sponsors from the companies mentioned above will be hanging out, along with some of the other sponsors, including Hess, Integrys Energy Services, NASDAQ OMX Commodities, U.S. Energy Services, NGX, CenterPoint Energy Services, Planalytics, Ballard Spahr, Thomson Reuters, GlobalView, LIM, the Oxford Princeton Programme, SOLARC, Triple Point, Telvent dtn, Platts, Melita Weather, and ZE Power Group.
That's not all, but you'll have to go to gasmart.com to find out the rest, see who's going to be there, and register to attend.
SOURCE: GasMart