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/lp/annual-reviews/the-future-of-methane-as-an-energy-resource-9BrZyWb802
- Publisher
- Annual Reviews
- Copyright
- Copyright 1990 Annual Reviews. All rights reserved
- Subject
- Review Articles
- ISSN
- 1543-5938
- DOI
- 10.1146/annurev.eg.15.110190.000413
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
A decade ago, the future of natural gas looked exceedingly dim to US policymakers. In a climate of pessimism, the US Congress placed legal restraints on future uses of natural gas in the industrial and electric utility sectors by passing the Powerplant and Industrial Fuel Use Act in 1978 . This piece of the Carter administration's package of shortage-inspired energy legislation reflected the prevailing world view that gas supplies were rapidly shrinking. The anxiety regarding energy during the I 970s was popularized by Club of Rome publications and heightened by periodic regional shortages that appeared to be clear evidence of an unstoppable decline in proved natural gas reserves. Today the general pessimism regarding US and world supplies of natural gas has been replaced by buoyant optimism. In the United States, changes in regulatory and market conditions during the late 1970s and early 1980s turned the supply situation around, creating a gas "bubble." The bubble, which still persists due to lower gas demand coupled with high deliverability, is the partial basis of the current optimism toward supply. Three deeper reasons underlie the view that natural gas will play an important role in the world economy through the next century:
Journal
Annual Review of Environment and Resources – Annual Reviews
Published: Nov 1, 1990