Natural gas is likely to benefit as President Obamas choices to guide energy and environmental policy during his second term lead the battle against global warming.
Ernest Moniz, a professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will take over from Stephen Chu as Energy Secretary; and Gina McCarthy will become the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Having made his selection, Obama announced that "they're going to be making sure that we're investing in American energy, that we're doing everything that we can to combat the threat of climate change."
Frank Maisano, a lobbyist at Bracewell & Giulliani, explained that "one of the solutions to dealing with climate is supporting natural gas."
Moniz, a physics and engineering professors at MIT served as the Energy Department undersecretary from 1997 to 2001, and before that acted as President Bill Clintons science advisor.
He has given his support to the use of natural gas as a bridge fuel before.
"In the very long run, very tight carbon constraints will likely phase out natural gas power generation in favor of zero- carbon or extremely low-carbon energy sources," he stated. "For the next several decades, however, natural gas will play a crucial role in enabling very substantial reductions in carbon emissions."
McCarthy, in her role as head of the EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, also encouraged natural gas with her broad regulations to cut pollution levels from coal fired power plants.
By. Joao Peixe of Oilprice.com
Joao is a writer for Oilprice.com More