Tell Lawmakers: Natural Gas Will Help Address Climate Change

MSCI’s partners at the Energy Equipment and Infrastructure Alliance (EEIA) brought to our attention a letter recently sent to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) from Toby Rice, president and CEO of EQT Corporation, one of the world’s largest producers of natural gas. As EEIA explained, Sen. Warren had written to Rice and others in the natural gas industry asserting that a combination of “corporate greed” and U.S. LNG exports are driving natural gas prices higher at the expense of U.S. energy consumers.

Rice disagreed. His letter explained that U.S. natural gas prices are among the lowest in the world and that the U.S. natural gas industry has enabled the country to lead the world in reducing carbon emissions.

Rice also argued expanding U.S. LNG exports will enable other countries to reduce their emissions. The only way the rest of the world, and especially China and India, can hope to significantly reduce emissions over the next few decades is by increasing their imports of LNG and switching away from higher carbon fuels for power generation, Rice said.

Rice also offered several policy recommendations, including:

• Approvals for domestic pipelines directed towards U.S. demand centers and LNG export facilities;
• Approvals for new LNG export facilities at a pace five times faster than historical norms; and
• Coordination with international communities to encourage the replacement of their coal with U.S. LNG.

Rice concluded, “If we want to be a leader in addressing climate change, we need to be a leader on the global stage by providing others with access to our lower emissions-intensive energy resources. And that requires more LNG infrastructure, more pipeline infrastructure and more production of natural gas. The United States has a vast amount of natural gas, more than any other country in the world.”

EEIA and MSCI urge interested business leaders, employees, and consumers to read Rice’s letter, and then send copies, with a cover letter, to your U.S. senators and congressmen and state officials who need to hear this message directly from their constituents. Find contact information for House members here. Find contact information for senators here.