Denver (Platts)--9Jul2010/619 am EDT/1019 GMT



The US natural gas industry should form new allies to step up the fight for its slice of the energy pie, former US Senator Tim Wirth said Thursday at the Colorado Oil and Gas Association's Annual Rocky Mountain Energy Epicenter in Denver.

Wirth, now the president of the United Nations Foundation, said coal lobbyists have been far more successful in getting their message across to Washington than the gas industry and, as a result, gas is not receiving the attention it deserves.

"I have never seen such an opportunity as this one," he said, noting a push to limit greenhouse gases at the same time huge gas reserves are being uncovered, but he added that the industry needs to play tough to counter coal lobbyists. "We're not playing bean bags. The coal companies are playing hard, and you must fight back," he said.

Wirth added that it is time to think creatively about how regulations could work for natural gas and use the Environmental Protection Agency's clean air rules to knock "King Coal" off its throne.

"If they lose, you will win," he said.

Making new friends with the industry's traditional enemies, such as federal regulators and environmental groups, also would benefit the gas industry. "It's time to stop fighting old enemies and develop new coalitions," he said.

Wirth also called for the industry to stop minimizing the environmental risk to natural gas drilling and find ways to protect the water supply. "It's simply the price of doing business," in a world after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the movie "Gasland" and the lighting of water faucets on fire, he said.

Wirth also called for public disclosure of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, a technique used in horizontal drilling, and noted that public concerns about the safety of these chemicals and the possibility that they are getting into the water supply risks turning public sentiment against gas.

The gas industry should support state funding for oversight, he said, adding that "sound regulation can be very good for your end."

--Cheryl Buchta, cheryl_buchta@platts.com