LNG

The American Gas Association said the state of Nebraska’s state legislature became the 26th state to pass fuel choice legislation in a unanimous and bipartisan vote, securing the protection of energy choice for consumers in a majority of states across the country.

The AGA explained that consumer energy choice preserves access to safe, clean and affordable energy resources including natural gas that offer a sustainable pathway to the shared goal of reducing emissions while maintaining affordability, reliability and quality of life for Americans.

“Thanks to the bipartisan action of now 26 state governments, more than 157 million Americans and 58 million households have a protected choice when it comes to how to fuel their homes and businesses,” said AGA President and CEO Karen Harbert.

Natural gas usage

“The average home using natural gas for space heating, water heating, cooking and clothes drying has about 18 percent lower carbon dioxide emissions than those attributable to an all-electric home, and the average family using natural gas for those purposes saves an average of $1,132 per year,” explained Harbert.

“Over the past 10 years, American families have saved a total of $125 billion thanks to natural gas,” she stated.

“Those are numbers we can be proud of. They also highlight how harmful natural gas bans would be for American families,” Harbert stated.

The AGA represents more than 200 local energy companies that deliver natural gas throughout the US.

There are more than 77 million residential, commercial and industrial natural gas customers in the US, of which 95 percent, or around 73M customers, receive their gas from AGA members.

Fuel choice legislation preserves access to natural gas in homes and businesses in states that have enacted them across America.

Nebraska became the 26th state to pass such a law, joining Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

Bipartisan moves

“Every state to pass fuel choice legislation has done so in a bipartisan manner,” said the AGA.

“Since 1990, emissions from the natural gas distribution system have declined by 70 percent, even as demand for and usage of natural gas has increased with natural gas served to 23.4 million more consumers and the number of miles of distribution pipeline increasing by 59 percent,” the AGA noted.

US Natural gas is currently 3.3 times more affordable than electricity and expected to remain substantially more cost-efficient through at least to 2050.

“The affordability of natural gas is a critical reason why more than 500,000 families signed up for natural gas space heating, rather than electric heat pumps, over the past five years,” the AGA said.

The American Gas Association and partner organizations have filed an initial brief with the US Court of Appeals in a legal challenge against three United States Department of Energy rules that limit customer access to energy-efficient natural gas products.

The American Gas Association (AGA) welcomes a new report that examines regulatory changes that will support investments and infrastructure improvements necessary to support broader energy system resilience.

The American Gas Association has elected Kimberly S. Greene of Atlanta, Georgia-based Southern Company Gas to Chair the AGA Board for 2022 at a challenging time for the US natural gas industry and a landmark time for the growing LNG export sector.

The American Gas Association said 151.7 billion cubic feet of domestic natural gas was delivered in the United States on February 14 and 149.8 Bcf on February 15, setting a record for the largest demand for a two-day period ever as extreme cold gripped the nation.

The official Inventory of US Greenhouse Gas Emissions has been released showing that annual emissions from the natural gas distribution pipeline system for utilities and latterly to supply LNG export plants had dropped 73 percent in the past 18 years.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) figures for emissions from 1990 to 2018 illustrated the sizeable decline even as natural gas utilities added more than 760,000 miles of pipelines to serve 20 million more customers.

The report noted that distribution systems owned and operated by local natural gas utilities emit only 0.08 percent of produced natural gas.

“The greenhouse-gas emissions from the natural gas distribution system are low and getting lower and we remain committed to further reductions,” said American gas Association President and Chief Executive Karen Harbert.

“As companies continue to modernize our natural gas infrastructure and connect homes and businesses to the system, new opportunities arise to continue to drive down greenhouse gas emissions by leveraging new and existing natural gas infrastructure,” added Harbert.

For more than two decades, the EPA has developed and published estimates of greenhouse-gas emissions in its Inventory of US Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks.

The EPA Inventory represents the most comprehensive assessment of US greenhouse-gas emissions available.

The EPA made further updates to its Inventory released in April 2020.

“The analysis characterized new estimates for methane emissions and the implications for the greenhouse gas profile for natural gas,” said the AGA.

“The Inventory affirms a low methane emissions profile for natural gas distribution systems shaped by a declining trend,” said the industry body.

“Industry-wide natural gas emissions as a rate of production is now 1.0 percent - a level well below even the most stringent thresholds for immediate climate benefits achieved through coal-to-natural gas switching,” stated the AGA.

The AGA said it remained committed to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions through innovation, new and modernized infrastructure, and advanced technologies that maintain reliable, resilient and affordable energy service choices for consumers.

The American Gas Association has welcomed the new natural gas transmission pipeline safety rules from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)  as representing a consensus approach to enhancing the safe transportation of America’s abundance of natural gas to domestic customers and LNG plants.

The PHMSA released three rules intended to continue to improve the safety and resilience of the vast US energy delivery infrastructure to keep pace with increased supply and demand.

“This significant update to pipeline safety regulations is the culmination of years of work by government, industry and pipeline safety advocates,” said AGA President and Chief Executive Karen Harbert.

“We applaud PHMSA and everyone who participated in the process for a final rule that brings certainty to our industry and everyone that works to deliver natural gas to customers throughout the country that want it,” stated Harbert.

The AGA pointed out that the Gas Pipeline Advisory Committee provided PHMSA with recommendations on the technical feasibility, reasonableness, cost-effectiveness and practicability of the proposed rule and recommendations to support finalizing the rule.

The PHMSA said the three significant final rules published in the Federal Register will strengthen the safety of more than 500,000 miles of onshore gas transmission and hazardous liquid pipelines throughout the US.

The rules will also enhance the PHMSA’s authority to issue an emergency order to address unsafe safety conditions or hazards that pose an imminent threat to pipeline safety.

“These are significant revisions to federal pipeline safety laws and will improve the safety of our nation’s energy infrastructure,” said US Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao.

The US pipelines deliver trillions of cubic feet of natural gas and hundreds of billions of ton-miles of liquid petroleum products each year.

The pipeline regulator said the gas transmission and hazardous liquid pipeline safety rules would modernize federal pipeline safety standards by expanding risk-based integrity management requirements, enhancing procedures to protect infrastructure from extreme weather events, and requiring greater oversight of pipelines beyond current safety requirements.

The regulator said that final rules address significant Congressional mandates from the Pipeline Safety Act of 2011 and recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board.

“The tremendous growth in US energy production will require greater anticipation and preparation for emerging risks to public safety,” said PHMSA Administrator Skip Elliott.

“These forward-looking rules will help ensure pipeline operators invest in continuous improvements to pipeline safety and integrity management,” Elliot added.

The gas transmission rule requires operators of gas transmission pipelines constructed before 1970 to determine the material strength of their lines by reconfirming the Maximum Allowable Operating Pressure (MAOP).

In addition, the rule updates reporting and records retention standards for gas transmission pipelines.

The hazardous liquid rule encourages operators to make better use of all available data to understand pipeline safety threats and extends leak detection requirements to all non-gathering hazardous liquid pipelines.

In addition, the rule requires operators to inspect affected pipelines following an extreme weather event or natural disaster so they may address any resulting damage.

All three final rules were transmitted to the Federal Register for publication.

The mission of the PHMSA is to protect people and the environment by advancing the safe transportation of energy and other hazardous materials that are essential to the daily lives of citizens.

The PHMSA develops and enforces regulations for the safe operation of the nation’s 2.8 million-mile pipeline transportation system and the nearly one million daily shipments of hazardous materials by land, sea, and air.