Natural gas sufficient for 100 Utah winters

SALT LAKE CITY — Residents of the Beehive State can take comfort in the knowledge that they live in a place that has enough energy to keep them warm for the next hundred Utah winters.

"At this point, we can demonstrate — at current rates of (national) consumption — 100 years of existing supply," J. Paul Matheny, vice president of the Rockies Region for Questar Exploration and Production, told the Deseret News. "That amount continues to grow every year as we continue to exploit these new technologies and find the extent of these new supplies of natural gas."

Matheny was one of the featured speakers Thursday at the Utah Association of Energy Users' Western States Energy Conference at the Little America Hotel.

The conference focused on the impact of changes in the competitive marketplace, including the effects environmental regulations will have on utilities and businesses that consume energy.

He said that natural gas supplies are very plentiful, even more so than coal, giving the resource "a very, bright, viable, affordable future" as a home heating fuel, an electric power generating fuel and a transportation fuel.

Matheny said that as technology improves in the coming years, the useful life of the state's and the nation's existing natural gas supply could be extended even further.

In addition, Utahns have another advantage that makes natural gas even more affordable locally. Because the state's largest natural gas utility, Questar Gas, owns half of its natural gas supply, local consumers pay less than people in other Western states, he said.

"(The supply) is shipped … all for the cost of service," Matheny said. "It's never sold into the open market. So it comes into the system much cheaper than the other half, … which they have to buy on the open market."

That affordability is good not only for residential consumers but also for economic development, according to a spokesman for the governor's office.

"(Energy) is the key component for our economic growth," Jason Perry, chief of staff for Gov. Gary Herbert, told the Deseret News. "It's the way we can project our growth, the way we recruit companies to the state and the way we grow companies in the state."

Perry said the presence of abundant, reasonably priced energy is an important tool in helping to persuade companies to do business in Utah and a great marketing tool when compared to economically and energy-challenged states like California.

"This is a vital piece of everything we have master-planned for the state," he said.

e-mail: jlee@desnews.com