Feb. 12--HOUSTON -- In recent years, most natural gas representatives in the nation's capital were satisfied to keep their heads down and avoid too much attention.

But with the growing likelihood of carbon controls in the United States, natural gas's position as the most likely fuel to help bridge the long-term transition to renewable and low-carbon energy sources is creating a reason to take a higher profile.

"I'm heartened by a rising awareness of the value of natural gas in Washington," said Skip Horvath, president of the Natural Gas Supply Association, which represents producers. The remarkable growth in U.S. natural gas supply, largely the result of new sources like the Barnett Shale, is only now becoming familiar to policymakers looking for a plentiful, relatively clean power source, Horvath said.

This change in attitude was exemplified here at Cambridge Energy Research Associates' annual energy forum by a Monday address from Rep. Edward Markey, the Massachusetts Democrat who holds leadership positions on committees overseeing energy and environmental legislation.

Markey, regarded as no friend of the energy industry, surprised many in his audience when he declared that he supported oilman and investor Boone Pickens' view of using natural gas to displace crude oil in the nation's transportation system as part of the move to renewable sources.

Melanie Kenderdine, associate director of the Energy Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that if the natural gas business can change lawmakers' image of the industry, there are a number of opportunities to boost demand.

For example, she said, technology allowing the capture and storage of carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants "is a long way off, 10 to 12 years for a large demonstration project." In the meantime, she said, "we won't have any choice other than using a lot of natural gas."

But that runs into "a perception that gas is in short supply," she said. To counter that, she said, the industry needs to make use of studies, such as an upcoming report by the Colorado School of Mines, which concludes that the nation's shale gas reserves top 2,000 trillion cubic feet, or nearly 100 years of supply at current consumption rates.

If that line of reasoning sounds familiar, it's probably because it's basically the message that Chesapeake Energy Chairman Aubrey McClendon has spent millions spreading. At the event, McClendon said Wednesday that he's optimistic about the industry's reception in Washington.

"This administration gets the fact that it can address the environmental concerns" with natural gas and do it "for decades to come" in whatever quantities are needed, he said.

Rune Bjornson, executive vice president of StatoilHydro, said the promise of such vast reserves is what drew his Norway-based company to create a joint venture with Chesapeake in Appalachia's Marcellus Shale. StatoilHydro is paying $3.4 billion for a 32.5 percent stake in Chesapeake's interests in the developing field.

"Entering the shale gas play in the U.S. was a recognition there are huge reserves outside of Russia and the Middle East," Bjornson said during a news conference with McClendon.

That's also the industry's immediate problem: The rapid growth of U.S. natural gas supply in the past year has coincided with a sharp decline in demand, which has driven prices to their lowest levels in more than two years.

"We've loosened the supply-demand balance" in the favor of consumers, not producers, said Kenneth Yeasting of the Cambridge group. He said the falloff in demand from industry and power producers should bounce back fairly quickly but not all the way until the economy turns around.

Jim Fuquay, 817-390-7552

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