The new U.S. gas triumphalists say the gas resource supply picture has changed, shale gas has saved us from importing losts of expensive LNG, we’ve got tons and tons of gas now and for years to come, and public policy ideas based on the idea of diminishing supplies of ever more costly gas need to be replaced.
Not so fast, a few analysts are saying. A few recent examples:
Both suggest, among other things, that gas may be cheap now but it won’t be cheap later, so don’t let your public policy (or your private long term investments) get hooked on cheap gas.
- Gail the Actuary, Our Finite World: “Don’t count on natural gas to solve US energy problems.”
- John Dizard, Financial Times: “Pitfalls of the US cheap gas habit.”
The Our Finite World piece is the less-sound of the two. It seems to add up to a claim that gas is so cheap that it doesn’t pay to invest in more production capacity, and if no one invests in more production capacity supplies will run down, and then gas will not be cheap anymore. So watch out! There are many informative charts in the post....MORE
"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.
-Yogi Berra on why he no longer went to Ruggeri's, a St. Louis restaurant.
