Report: West could displace foreign oil, gas imports

SALT LAKE CITY — A new report asserts Utah and the West could produce enough oil and gas on a daily basis by 2020 to equal U.S. imports from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Venezuela and five other foreign countries combined.

The Blueprint for Western Energy Prosperity predicts that Utah, too, will play an increasingly vital role in the supply of American energy, increasing natural gas production by 42 percent over the next 10 years. 

Released Monday by the Western Energy Alliance, which represents more than 400 oil and gas companies in the West, the report says if energy producers are allowed to develop vast resources found on public lands, investment in the region will double to $58 million annually by 2020.

For that to happen, however, federal policies that stymie growth, investment and expansion need to be abolished, and a moratorium on new and expanded layers of regulation should be invoked, the report said.

"Western producers are gravely concerned that government policies are significantly undermining these projections of growth, investment and expansion," said Western Energy Alliance's President Tom Sheffield. "Misguided government action is preventing achievement of the region's full energy potential."

The report also said that the rest of the country needs to model Utah for its promotion of the use of natural gas vehicles through the removal of barriers and by providing incentives via tax credits.

In particular, the state was recognized for bringing to the attention of the Environmental Protection Agency that changes were necessary to streamline the conversion process from gasoline to natural gas.

"Utah's legislation to reduce the cost of converting vehicles to natural gas has helped spur the EPA to clarify and rewrite conversion requirements," the report said.

"By incentivizing the purchasing of conversion kits, refueling infrastructure and helping to lower the financial barriers to entering the CNG market, Utah has allowed CNG vehicles to compete based on their own merits."

All conversion kits have to meet EPA standards when it comes to requirements of the Clean Air Act, and manufacturers were held to a certification process often not user friendly, said Joe Thomas, manager of the state Air Quality division's mobile sources and transportation.

"That's why Utah championed the effort with EPA to please look through the certification process," he said. "If the kit manufacturer process costs a lot of money and it is too cumbersome," the effort itself is backfiring, he said.