"Natural gas producers today face intense opposition to exploration and development on these public lands," Rattie said. "And even when this opposition is overcome it can take years to navigate the erroneous federal procedures required to lease, evaluate and obtain permits to drill."

Rattie added that no one should be advocating for drilling in national parks. However, he said, large areas now off-limits are not unique and should be opened for drilling.

A national push to find a silver bullet to ease high energy prices has federal regulators looking toward liquefied natural gas, or LNG. However, Rattie said, LNG will not be cheap, will not be quick and may not solve the nation's supply problem.

Likewise, an Arctic gas pipeline to the lower 48 states will cost around $20 billion and is more than 10 years from reality. Further, Rattie said, efforts to conserve or rely on wind or solar resources will not solve the problem.

Compounding the issue is a shortage of human capital, Rattie said. Two decades of downsizing and under-investment have left few petroleum engineers and earth scientists to tackle the problem.

Rattie said markets are responding to high prices as exploration and drilling increase, but price volatility likely will continue for some time.

In Utah, consumers, businesses and industry, according to a recent report, spent $2.06 billion on overall energy costs in 2003, a 25 percent increase from $1.65 billion in 1999.

"Much of future natural gas supply must come from public lands," Rattie said. "Today, we are producing gas that back in 1979 everyone thought was unrecoverable, from coal beds, tight sands and shale. "Technology has cut both the cost and risk of exploration, allowed us to drill deeper and to produce more from old fields. . . . Indeed, technology may some day unlock the vast amounts of natural gas trapped as hydrates below the ocean floor in the Arctic tundra. Some scientists believe there is enough potential to supply the U.S. market for several hundred years or even longer."

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E-mail: danderton@desnews.com