While the U.S. government and energy companies are touting natural gas as a plentiful and cleaner replacement for coal, an energy analyst and investor said he doesn't think it’s as abundant as some think.
"It’s just as unsustainable as coal," said Bill Power, who is a member of the board of directors of Arsenal Energy, an oil and natural gas company, and author of "Cold, Hungry, and in the Dark: Exploding the Natural Gas Supply Myth."
Power said that the recent surge in the number of natural gas operations in the country has encouraged huge levels of consumption. As a result, he said the country is actually on the verge of a huge supply shortage that will raise prices to “between $9 and $15” per thousand cubic feet by the year 2015. He said this could leave consumers unable to afford heat or electricity and might disrupt food supply as well.
He said the recent closing of four U.S. nuclear plants, including Wisconsin’s Kewaunee Power Station, was just one move toward heavier reliance on cheap -- for now -- natural gas.
Already, he said, prices are up 60 percent over last year.
"It depends on how well prepared you are, but there will be some people who will be cold, hungry and in the dark," he said.
That being said, Power said homeowners can help mitigate the possible effects of a bursting supply bubble by reducing their reliance on natural gas, mostly by installing alternative energy systems to heat and power their homes. Neighborhoods can also form cooperatives to produce and share solar, geothermal or wind power, he said.
Increasing the efficiency of the existing power grid, too, could recapture some of the 7 percent of power that is currently wasted in distribution, Power said.
Overall, he said the future is in a more distributed model, where communities and neighborhoods do everything they can to generate their own power, rather than relying on centralized sources.
“A lot of them are going to take some time, some planning, and some money,” Powers said.
But as a nation, he said challenges are unavoidable.
“We are installing a lot of wind power, we are seeing a lot of solar being installed, and we are making investments. Unfortunately, we have not made enough in my opinion already to mitigate the coming high prices," he said.
